


Under the Stars

by mochidevill



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Angst, Choi Jongho-centric, Kinda, Superheros, i don’t know how to tag, powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:40:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23195656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochidevill/pseuds/mochidevill
Summary: He tries his best to not seem anything more that a normal teen when he's at school, but sometimes people are able to see past the act. He wished a specific group of students were a bit less perceptive, but sometimes you can't always get what you want.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing, so bear with me on this. I’m sorry if anything is wrong I’m just dumb. Sorry if this is bad it’s my first fic

Growing up in a gang isn't what you think it is, you think that people would have a heart and raise their kid normally despite being in a gang. Most gangs are somewhat civilized when it comes to children, but the gang that runs the south district, named The Faceless Organization, or TFO for short, controls their gang a little differently. 

They control their gang with fear and intimidation, inside and out. 

They have no empathy, sympathy, or any sort of compassion for the kids that are in that gang. 

They’ve all been conditioned for too long to think otherwise.

Even the kids think the life they lead is somehow normal in this world. That having a gang that rules over everyone inside of it and outside of it with the feeling that they are superior in every way to everyone else. That’s is why TFO is so dangerous, because their intimidation is based on people knowing what they can, and will, do to someone who will get in their way. 

They keep growing too. They kidnap people and force them to work for TFO or else they'll kill them. They will also convince some of the parents to give their kids to the gang. 

Especially if you have a kid that has some type of power, kids with powers are loved by gangs only because if they can control the kid, they control the power as well. Powered people started showing up when some scientist blew up his lab 163 years ago, and he was experimenting on how to give people inhuman abilities, when the lab blew up people were effected by the gasses that it left in the air, then those people affected by the toxic gasses have children that have mutated genes, then those children develop powers from those mutated genes over their toddler years. Not all children have powers though, it’s a very rare set of genes to have in your family. Sometimes you’ll have the genes but it won’t be activated, so you’d have the possibility of having powers but they would never surface. 

They train these kids from very young so all they know is the gang life, and even then it's hell for them. The kids are beaten if they don't get it right after being taught, and are starved for days on end sometimes for being disobedient. Sometimes kids will be on the brink of death and they will still receive a punishment for doing wrong. 

The powered kids have it worse than the non powered ones, because the higher ups will work them to the bone in trying to get them to master their power, then once they have mastered their power it come time to break them into submission, to keep them from trying to escape from the hell they live and breathe. The powered kids are the most worked, they are the ones that revive the worst punishments in the gang, they are the once who are the quietest. If they speak out even once they are tortured for days on end. 

Powered kids in this gang are treated like animals who are to submissive to their owner for their own good. Following the owner even if it hurts them more than running away would. They still follow. Because what else do they have? They don’t have anywhere to run to, they have nowhere they could call home, a safe place away from the horrors of the gang they have called home for over half of their lives, some all their lives. 

TFO is a gang you don't want to mess with, because they will make sure they get what they want, even if they have to play dirty to get it. They don’t care what the rules are. 

I would know, I grew up in TFO. 

I still am growing up in it. I'm only eighteen, and I've been in TFO for fourteen years and eleven months. I was three when my powers started to surface, my family has the gene and I’m only one of three in my family that has an activated gene. My powers benefit TFO greatly, I have multiple powers, which is extremely rare. I have enhanced senses, enhanced agility, animal shape shifting, telekinesis, healing, and shadow manipulation. When my parent found out that I had the activated genes in my body they tried their best to get me as far away from the gang as possible, but eventually they had found me, as started to condition me to the ways of their gang. 

I get punishments, sometimes because I made mistakes on my missions, sometimes because I didn't follow my orders directly, sometimes because I spoke back, sometimes there is no reason. 

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to live a normal life when I can't sleep. The only normal thing I have in my life is going to school, that was one of the only things I will be grateful to them for. They paid for my uniform, and all my books. I have to keep my grades 95% or above, or else. The only downside to going to school is I have to wear the bracelets that keep me from using my powers when I am wearing them. They only let me take them off when I have a mission or run I have to do, or when I need to heal myself after a particularly hard beating, or when I’m in the training room. Other than that, I always have them on. 

I try my best to act as normally as I can, but I've been paranoid basically my whole life so that’s kind of impossible. I listen for footsteps following me for longer that they should, and I look for threats or people looking at me wrong. In short, I don’t know how to act normal, but I try.

"Class please turn in your homework from yesterday." Ms. Kim said. 

Oh god. I forgot I had homework. 

I had training all last night, and when I finally got dismissed I instantly fell asleep as soon as I got to my bed. I slowly got up and put my empty homework page into the pile. Walking back to my desk I thought of the last time I forgot to do my homework. 

I shivered. They waterboarded me when I forgot to do homework last time, I don't want to go through that again. It's my fault anyway, I should've done my homework. 

Shaking the thought away, I look back to the front and I see the teacher looking through them. She stops and looks at me with disappointment. I just look down and mess with my pencil. I pull my phone out of my pocket after feeling it buzz. 

TFO superior messenger guy:  
When you get out of school you need to change into your spare outfit. There will be someone nearby who will give you a backpack with valuables inside it. Do not lose the backpack. He will give you further instructions. 

Me:  
Yes sir. Thank you letting me know sir.

TFO superior messenger guy:  
Whatever

‘TFO superior messenger guy’ is the only one who ever texts me when I need to know info, I have a mission or drug run I have on short notice. I’ve never asked his name, and he’s never told it to me, so I just kind of made one for him. 

When the final bell rang I walked into a bathroom no one really uses, and changed out of my school uniform. I pull my black jeans and a grey shirt out of the bottom of my back pack, changing into them I also pull out a navy blue hoodie, putting it on I make sure to pull them over my bracelets. I shove my uniform in my backpack, then walk out of the bathroom. Looking around the somewhat empty hallway, I make my way to the front. I see a man I've seen maybe once or twice at the base, he's an average looking man. 

I walk over to him and hand him my backpack so he can give the one he has. When he gives it to me, he gives me a phone that has the directions on it telling where the transaction site is. 

"When you get there, they will have a payment. And if they don't look like they have enough, there is an app that you can open, it will tell you how much is needed. Of there is any problems let us know if you need backup. If you do we'll try to be there as soon as we can. But I know what you are capable of, if you can handle it do what you need to. When we get there tell us. If you lose that backpack there is no mercy for you, do you understand?" He said glaring the entire time. "And that phone has a tracker on it so we’ll know where you are at all times.” 

"Yes sir, I won't let you down." He just continues to glare. 

“Also, we’re taking your bracelets off for this in case something goes wrong, don’t make us regret this decision.” He looks at my wrist. “Hold your hands out.” 

I hold my hands out and he pull out the special key to unlock them, once they are off the world is suddenly a lot more vibrant and loud. 

“You won’t regret your decision sir, I promise.” I said as he turns and gets in his car. 

I put the backpack on my back and start to walk away from him. I look at the phone to see if I'm going the right way. I walk a little faster so I don’t look too casual, and I’ve noticed that I actually have been to the area before, so I don't need the gps. 

Hearing some footsteps behind me, they aren’t too close, maybe twenty feet away. I start to walk a little faster while taking a few turns at stop lights, yet they're still following me. I walk down an alley next to me and try and find a way out before they can turn into it. Seeing a turn to the left of the end of the alley, I run and see an exit at the end of the new alley way. I hear loud footsteps behind me, I run out of the alley pulling my hood up and continuing to run to the site, which is a small park that is a frequent location for drug runs in our gang. 

Once at the park, I slow down to a walk. I have a bad feeling right now. I see one guy surrounded by three other men. I pull my mask over my nose to hide my face. One of the trademark things TFO does, we never show our faces other than our eyes. 

"You have my stuff kid?" 

"You have our payment?" I glared.

"Sure. It's right here." He said patting a backpack on one of the men. 

"Open it." I said.

"Look kid you can act like you know how this stuff works but just-" 

"I said open it." I growled shifting on my feet to get a better angle if they do attack me. 

He started laughing. "Look kid stay out of gang stuff, if you get too far in you won't be able to get out. Just give me the stuff and I'll give you the money." 

I pulled at the collar of my hoodie to expose the tattoo I was given six years ago. It's a hawk skull, I'm the only one with this tattoo. Anyone who is in a gang knows this tattoo belongs to TFO's best member. 

"I will not say it again. Open. The. Bag." I growled as I see the fear started seeping into his face. 

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'll open it, I didn't know who you were, please don't tell you leader I treated you like that, he'll cut ties with us." He said opening his backpack. "See, everything is there." He said nervously. 

"Count it." I said pulling out my phone to see exactly how much he should have for me. 

"W-what, but it's all here." I glared again. "Okay, fine." He said quickly pulling out stack by stack and setting in on the ground. He pulled out fourteen stacks, and if I did my math right he should have two more. 

"You're short." I said. 

"I know I'm short but just because your tall doesn't mean you can rub it in." He said trying to get off topic.

"Let me repeat myself, you are short by two stacks." He started to shake slightly. I pulled out my phone and dialed one of my higher ups. 

"Sir, they are short by two stacks what do you request I do?" I said emotionlessly. 

"Wait for a crew to get there, tell them if they don't get the rest by the time we get there, they'll regret it." 

"Yes sir." I said and hung up. 

"Go get the rest before my higher ups get here, you'll talk to them when they get here." I said and he runs off to go get the rest. 

While he's gone I hear a car pull up behind me. That was way too fast. I turn around and see that the car the pulled up was not a TFO van. It was an unmarked cop car, I ran off in the darkness as I hear people yelling behind me. I pull out my phone again to call the same person.

"Don't come near the area, cops are here." I say when he picks up. 

"Do you have any weapons on you." He asks.

"No sir. But there is a high chance that there is at least one gun around here. If I hadn't shown them my tattoo there would’ve been a fight." I said running behind a tree. 

"As soon as I find the guns I'll take care of these guys, I will wait for those guys to come back to finish the payment, then I will come back to base." I said as I crouched near a tree. 

“Okay then, we will not send backup, we will wait for you to come back with our payment. Don’t take too long.” He said. 

“Yes sir.” I said as I hung up. 

I look around to take in the situation. They are just trying to find me right now. I can't let them find me, because right now I'm pretty sure I'm carrying a fuck ton of illegal drugs currently. Pulling my hood further onto my head, I look around and see a bush not to far from where they were standing. Running quietly over to it I reach my hand into it and feel metal. Jackpot. I pull it out and look at it for a second. It's just a pistol with a suppressor, that should work, even if I’m not trained very well with hand guns. 

I look back to the police officers and see they are still looking for me.

I put the gun in my waistband of my pants and ran towards the slide. Crouching behind it I see them look in the direction of where I had ran from. My hand hovers over the gun as they get closer to me, I back away slightly causing the wood chips on the ground to make noise. I wince and look to see if they had heard it, noticing they are all now heading towards where I currently am, I start to take the pistol out of my waistband. 

I aim the silenced weapon at the furthest guys head, seeing that if I got the closest the rest would run for cover seeing the guy fall, making it harder for me to get the rest of them. There's three guys in total. I pull the trigger, and the guys fall backwards from the force of the bullet. Hearing the guy hit the ground the second police officer turns and reaches for his gun on his hip seeing his partner dead. Before he can even get his hand on the gun, a bullet flies into the side of his head too, and he falls to the ground. The third police officer doesn't even know what's happening behind him, I aim towards him, and pull the trigger before he registers the gun in my hand. 

Three seconds, three headshots. That could've been faster, but I’m not the best with hand guns anyway. 

I put the gun back in my waistband and wait for any more cop cars to show up. After a while I hear the guy come back with the rest of the money. 

"Holy- what happened here!?" He said in surprise. 

I walk towards him, stepping over a policeman. 

"Count it again." I glare. He nods quickly, pulling out stacks after stacks of money. After making sure the amount is correct, I grab the bag from him and give him the backpack on my back. 

Not leaving any time for anything else, I start to walk away. Once out of site from the guy I start to sprint back to the base. 

I knock on the door and one of the higher ups open it, pulling me in by the collar. 

“You’re in the blue room tonight.” He said. 

“W-what why? I didn’t do anything wrong did I?” I asked shaking slightly. 

“Because we said you are. No more questions.” He said pulling me towards the blue room. 

The blue room is specifically for powered kids, powered adults go to the purple room, non powered kids go to the red room, and non powered adults go to the yellow room.

Throwing me in the room, he walks away and three others walk in, two men and an American woman. These three are the go to tortures in this gang, they handle all the powered kids in here. They strap me in the bracelets and make me stand in the middle of the room. They take my jacket off, then my shirt, then my pants along with my underwear. Leaving me completely exposed, I’m used to it though this happened a lot. In the color rooms there is no dignity, there are no boundaries, and there is no modesty. 

The woman, whose name is Katelyn, walks in front of me while the two men tie my arms to chains that are hanging from the ceiling. They might be long enough to be tied around my wrists, but they are just short enough that I need to be standing on the balls of my feet. Katelyn opens the closet off the left of the room, and pull out her weapons of choice. Last time it was knives and a bat with short spikes, not long enough to need medical attention but long enough to cause scars, even if they were I could heal myself when they would take the bracelets off long enough to keep me from death. She used the knives to cut my stomachs, thighs and back when I would make noise.

This time, she brings out two items and a blindfold. I hate that thing, I have no way of knowing when she’s going to hit me or where. She has a whip in her left hand that’s holding the blindfold along with it, and a stun gun in her right. 

She walks closer to me and puts the blindfold over my head with little care. With the blindfold completely on I can hear her walking around me, and I hear the stun gun crackle in front of me when someone presses the button, causing me to flinch. 

I can hear the whip to my back right as well, but it doesn’t make skin contact with me. Finally after an agonizing anxious wait the pain erupts in my back. The whip makes a loud pop sound as it makes contact with my spine. Something drips down my back, but I can’t tell if it sweat or blood. At this point I couldn’t care I just want it to be over, and it’s barely even started. I know this is to go on for hours, or what seems like hours to me, in reality I could only be forty minutes maybe fifty. 

The second crack comes in a different spot, higher than the last. My jaw is starting to hurt from clenching my teeth so hard to prevent me from screaming. I know if I make noise the second weapon choice is to make me remember to be quiet. In this case the second weapon choice is the stun gun, and I don’t want that. 

After a few more hits of the whip I couldn’t hold back my screams anymore, I lost holding my tears in a while ago it was only a matter of time when I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. Everything went silent, the only thing I felt was terror, the pain wasn’t even there anymore the fear overcame that. 

“Please.. please I.. I swear it was accide-accident, I didn’t mean to! Please!” I cried. Waiting for the inevitable. 

“You know the rules, no noises at all. Sorry won’t get you anywhere but a longer punishment boy.” Her voice was in front of me. 

Pain erupts throughout my entire body, I pull on the chains on my wrists and my legs curl into my stomach, leaving me hanging in the air. The only sound my brain can register is the crackling and zapping of the electricity, that and my screaming. Once the stun gun is pulled away the balls of my feet are on the ground once again, and I stop pulling on the chains. 

The sweat rolling down my face is nothing but a distraction from the burning on my back, from both the whip and the stun gun. 

I have to endure this longer than originally planned, simply because I can’t keep my mouth shut. That’s normal though, I’ve never been able to keep silent for the entire time I’m in this room. Not once in my life have I been completely quiet in one of the beating sessions of had. 

After what felt like hours of pain I was finally let out of the blue room, I was given sweatpants, a black shirt, and underwear to sleep in. Once dresses I was then escorted to the small cell I call my room. I fits a twin size mattress and a toilet, and that’s it. The mattress has a thin blanket and a pillow that’s flatter than Katelyn’s chest. Slowly sitting on the rough bed, wincing every time I move my back slightly, I pull my homework out of my backpack and start to work on it. 

Maybe I got a punishment because I didn’t do my homework yesterday? 

That’s probably why, but right now I don’t care. I still have my bracelets on so I can’t heal myself, and that means a night full of agonizing sleeplessness, and trying to stay off of my back. Speaking of back, I bring my hand to my back, and under the shirt I’m wearing, to see if it’s bleeding or not. Pulling my hand pack to my front and seeing the blood coat my fingers. I sigh knowing I’m not going to be able to stop it from healing on its own. 

Once finished with my homework, I fall onto my side and let sleep try and take over me. Even though throughout the night every time I either, moved my back weirdly, or rolled onto my back, I would wake up in agony and move back to my side and try to fall back asleep. 

That continued through the night until eventually I was woken up for school.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jongho finds and tiny friend on his way to school, some boy and his friends won’t quit looking at him, and Jongho needs a hug desperately.

Waking up for school is one of the hardest things to do, even harder since I was in the blue room yesterday. Accidentally rolling onto my back, trying to fall back asleep after the pain finally went away a little bit, then falling asleep and repeating the process over and over again. 

By this point in my life it's normal, sad and painfully normal. 

I get out of my bed and wait for one of the higher ups to come take me to the showers, so I can get dressed in my uniform. 

The door opens, revealing a tall skinny woman. She grabs my wrist and pulls me to the showers. Along the way I see all the other kids and adults that were forced to work for TFO. Their eyes are dull, and focused. Whether they are in the training room, or something else, they are focused on what they're doing. 

We arrive at the shower stations and she shove me in, taking off my bracelets so they don't break in the water. This gives me an opportunity to heal myself while I'm washing off the dirt from yesterday. She stands at the door facing away from me, giving me the tiniest bit of privacy. I only have ten minutes to shower, and that gives me plenty of time to heal most of the wounds on my back. I turn the water on and the ice cold runs down my back, it's kind of soothing in a twisted sort of way. 

While I'm washing the rest of my body I'm focusing on healing my back to the best of my ability with the limited time I have. After I'm done with my body I move onto my hair, I put some of the shampoo on my hand and start to massage the soap into my scalp. When I feel I've done good enough I put my head under the freezing water and rinse the soap out of it. 

I turn the water off when I've rinsed off all the soap on me. I grab the towel off of the rack next to the shower, and I dry myself off. After I've dried myself completely, I put on my school uniform the lady gave to me before I got in the shower room. I start to dry my hair after my uniform is on completely. 

"Jongho your ten minutes is over." She said loudly. 

"Yes ma'am." I walk to her and she hands me my backpack. I hold my wrists out so she can put my bracelets back on me. 

"You're walking to school today, understand?" She said as more of a command more than a question.

"Yes ma'am, I understand." I said looking at the ground. She grabs me by the neck and shoved me forward towards the front of the base. 

The base is a giant apartment building that is attached to a warehouse. It's disguised as a children's home, that's one of the many things that keeps this gang from being found. That's also why there is so many children here, when people want to give their children away, if they can't provide for it or don't want the child, the first recommendation for most people is to give them to Fairness Together Children's Home or FTCH, because the FTCH is know for it willingness to take in any child of any form, and because no one knows they are willingly giving their child to a gang organization. More importantly, the most feared and mysterious gang in all of South Korea. 

Not even the other gangs know where TFO is located in Seoul. Seoul is TFO's territory, and it has been for over twenty years. Not one gang, police force, or superhero group knows the exact location of our base. The base has multiple secret entrances, and secret tunnels to come in and out of. Anyone who has accidentally found those entrances to the base, has gone "missing" according to the police. 

I walk out of the apartment building and start walking towards my school. Halfway there I stop at a seven eleven and get a small bento box, that has rice, kimchi, and some Korean beef. I give it to the cashier, pay with the small amount of money I'm aloud for lunches, and put the bento box in the small lunchbox I have in my backpack. 

I swing my backpack on my back, and continue my walk to the school. On the way there I see a small Somali kitten, who doesn't seem to have an owner. It's to friendly to be a stray seeing it walking towards me, which makes me believe it was thrown out for some reason. 

"Hey there little one, what are you doing out here all alone?" I ask. Being an animal shape shifter I can understand some animals, mostly the more domestic ones though. The kitten just looks at me. 

"You can talk to me, I'll understand you. I promise." I say petting it's head. 

"My mommy left me here after her owner took her, she told me to stay here and wait until she came back." The small kitten (female I think, based on the pitch of the voice) said. 

"Oh, do you think you would like to go with me to my home instead? You won't have to wait for her to come back, would you like that?" I ask softly, petting her back. 

"Would you let me? I don't think mommy's coming back." She said sadly. 

"Oh course I would let you, I would just have to convince my higher ups, but I don't think that'll be a problem, they would like to have more power over me anyway, if they can use something against me they will." I smile bitterly.

"Anyway, I can't take you home right now though, I have school but if you stay here and out of sight from anyone else I will bring you home." 

"Okay! I will wait right here, I have a little box over behind that trash can that I can hide in." She said hopping around. 

"What do you want me to call you?" I ask. 

"Mommy always called me Sammy, you can call me that if you want." 

"Okay Sammy, I'll call for you right here when I get out from school. I'll see you then." I said as I got up from my squatting position. 

"Okay see you mister!" She says and bounces over to her little box. 

I smile to myself as I walk away from her. My smile leaves when I think of what they will do when I bring a small kitten home. 

If I hide her, I'll get a worse punishment that I would for telling them when I get home. I don't even know where I would hide her anyway so that's out of the picture. I'll just ask them, that's the best option I have right now. 

Oh well, I'll think about it later. 

I once again continue my walk to my school. Once I'm finally there I walk into the building and head into my homeroom class. I sit down in my desk and wait for the bell to ring. My desk at the back center of the room. 

When the bell rings Mr. Park walk to the center of the white board and starts to write some words on it. 

'The American Civil War' is written in a black expo marker. 

"Today, we will be learning about the American civil war. Any questions before we start?" He said looking around the classroom. 

"Mr. Park why are we learning about American history? We live in Korea." Some boy on the soccer team says. 

"Great question! Because this is a history class we will be learning all about the history of Korea along with the history of some of the most populated countries as well. If there are no more questions I will begin my lesson." He said enthusiastically.

"Does anyone know why the American Civil War was started?" He asks, two hands go up. He points at on to the left of my desk. 

"They has a big disagreement?" The girl says. 

"You could call it a disagreement of sorts." Mr. park says and point at the other hand up. 

"The north states didn't like the south states?" The other girl says. 

"In a way yes, you're both right, but it's much deeper than that. The north states didn't like the southern states because...." He continues, but I'm not paying attention to what he's saying, I just continue to doodle on my paper. 

The bell rings for second period and I put my stuff away in my bag and head to my second class. In my second class is basically the same thing I do in my first class. I pay attention to the first few minutes, then space out for the rest of class, and then I go to the next class. This continues until lunch rolls around. I grab my backpack and head to the stairs to get to the roof. 

When I get to the roof I sit by the little garden that's up here, and get my bento box out of my backpack. I open it and eat most of the food leaving a little portion of rice and a few pieces of beef so Sammy has something to eat. 

Who knows when the last time she ate was. 

I put my bento box back in my bag and set it down by the chair I was sitting in, and walk over to the edge of the roof and stand leaning over it. 

Everything is just so dull. 

I look at my wrists and glare at the metal bands under my uniforms long sleeves concealing my powers. I'll never be used to these things. 

I wonder if I would be able to pick the lock on them? I know how, it's one of the things they taught me. 

I pull my sleeves down revealing the silver bands around both wrists. I pull a Bobby pin out of my pocket and put it inside the lock. When the pin went inside the hole, jolts of electricity started to shock me. Like last night, I was being electrocuted again. 

I couldn't pull the pin out of the lock either, so all I could do was groan and move my arms as much as I could. My legs gave out, and left me sitting on the ground with my head against the wall. My body tensing with every pulse of electricity, and every groan I let out is a strained scream. 

Finally after what felt like forever my fingers find the pin and rip it out with as much strength as my tensing muscles could muster. 

With the pin out I let out a pained sigh. I throw the pin away from me, vowing to never do that again as long as I live. 

Sweat once again rolling down my forehead. I get up and I'm hit with exhaustion, and dizziness. I wipe the sweat of my head, grab my backpack and head to my next class. 

I sit in my seat wait for the bell. When the bell rings I'm back in my routine, frost two minutes or so I pay attention then space out for the rest of class. 

Sometime in the middle of class I notice someone looking at me from the corner of my eye. Looking over at him he looks away really quickly, as if he thinks that if he looks away I haven't seen him. 

I shrug it off and go back to spacing out. 

The bell rings again and I head to my last class. I sit in my seat and wait for the bell. While waiting I notice the same boy looking at me, he's in this class too? He's with his friends, and they keep side glancing me as well, weird. 

The bell rings and Ms. Kim stands from her chair and writes on the white board. Something in English, I don't care to try and translate it right now. When she finishes writing she turns to us and starts talking. 

"Before we get into today's lesson, if you would, please bring your homework from yesterday to the basket." She smiled. 

I get my homework out of my backpack and put in in the basket at the front of the classroom.

"Okay, thank you. So today's lesson will only be a short worksheet and then the rest of the time will be yours to do whatever you want. Seoyeon will you pass out the worksheets please?" She said handing the stack of papers to the girl. 

The girl passes out the papers to everyone and gives the rest back to Ms. Kim. 

"Ms. Kim can we work in groups?" A boy says.

"Sure." She says and sits back down in her chair, and starts typing on her computer. 

I look down at the work sheet. I pick my backpack up and pull a pencil out of it, and start to work on the worksheet. I give my worksheet to Ms. Kim when i finish it, and sit back down waiting for the final bell so I can go get Sammy. 

Those boys keep looking at me, and I don't know how to feel about it. It's putting me on edge, stop looking at me. Every time I try to catch them looking at me they look away. What do they want? 

After what felt like ages the final bell rings. I grab my stuff and walk out of the class, and towards the front of the building. Reaching the front of the building I walk out and start my way back to the base. Tracing my steps exactly the way I came so I don't miss my turn to get to Sammy. 

When I see Sammy's trash can and the little box behind it, I start to call her name to call her out. 

"Sammy, you can come out of hiding now." I said as I see her little head pop out of the small box. 

"Hey I left you some of my lunch too." I pulled out the almost empty bento box, opening it she sniffs it and I set it down in front of her. 

"When is this?" She says, head tilting slightly. 

"It's rice and beef, I don't have any money right now to get you anything else." I said. 

"Okay, thank you." She says as she starts to lick at the rice. 

Once she's finished she sits down and starts to clean herself. 

"Is it okay if I pick you up Sammy?" I ask and she just rubs up against my calf, I'll take that as a yes. 

I pick her up by the belly and hold her to my chest. I start to walk home, my anxiety spiking higher with every step I take towards the apartment building. The knot in my stomach twisting with every breath, and it only worsens when I'm in front of the main door. I knock slowly. When the door opens the same person that pulled me in yesterday, pulls me inside by the collar again. And glares at the animal in my hands. 

"What is that?" A man off to the side growls at seeing the small ball of fur. 

"It.. it's a kitten.. Sir." I said with my voice shaking. 

"Why do you have a kitten Jongho?" He growls again. 

"It.. it was alone.. was alone so I thought.. I thought I'd take it home.. Sir." I said looking down. Sammy's looking at me confused and scared. I just look past her and at the floor.

"Sir.. sir can I.. can I keep her.. please?" I whisper. 

"I'll talk to the boss about it, you better hope he's in a good mood too. Now go to you room." He says shoving my head forwards. 

I walk back to my room, and set her down on my bed. I set my backpack down in the corner and wait. 

For what I'm not sure. 

But I wait anyway. 

At some point in my seemingly endless waiting, the door opens and a man steps into my room. 

"You step out of line, speak out of turn, anything without permission, the cats dead. Do you understand me boy?" He glares. 

"Yes sir. I won't mess up. I promise, thank you sir, thank you." I said standing up and bowing. 

"During school, the cat stays in this room. It does not leave this building under any circumstance, understand?" He said turning to walk out the door. 

"Yes sir." He pulls the door shut. 

"Looks like you get to stay Sammy." 

"Those people are scary, I don't like them." She pushes herself up against me. 

"Yeah.. they are scary, but I'll protect you no matter how hurt I get... I'll protect you. I promise Sammy, nothing will ever touch you as long as I'm here." I said scratching her ears. I get up and change out of my uniform into something more comfortable. 

_________

I'm starting to lay down to sleep when my door opens, and I'm met with three men in the gear meant for a mission. They're all wearing the same thing, a black leather jacket with a hood under the bulletproof vest, the white TFO logo on the left breast of the vest stands out against the all black outfit, black cargo pants tucked into the black combat boots, a face mask and goggles to cover their face. Three knives are strapped onto their legs, two on each of their thighs, one on the outer left and one on the outer right, and one on their right calf. There is a harness type strap on their chest that holds the guns, a suppressed large gun on their backs and two pistols on their hips. They all choose different guns that go on the back strap. 

The goggles are specially made for TFO, they have a night vision mode, a heat vision mode for the snipers, and a smoke mode for when we need to see through smoke. The face mask has a respirator in it for when we need to put tear gas down, or something impairs our breathing. 

"Get up, you have an assignment at 1 am. We're backup incase you fuck it up somehow." One of the men command. 

I don't say anything when getting up, I just walk with them as they grab my shoulders and move me towards the briefing room. 

When we get there, I get into my mission headspace, where I block out all my feelings so I can do a good job. My face is blank of emotion when the boss walks into the room and starts to go over what we are going to do. 

"You are going to assassinate a man who is getting to close for comfort to finding out our location, and our cover up." He says as he pulls out a map of a tall building. "He is having a business meeting on the 46th floor at 1:15 a.m. exactly, there will be nine in total attending the meeting including the target, you are to be in position at exactly 12:55 a.m." 

"There are cameras here, here, here," He points to three places on the outside of the building. "And there is a few on the inside that you need to look out for. The first one is one the 23rd floor facing the east, one on the 47th floor facing west, and one on the 52nd floor facing south. Those will all be able to capture you in frame if you are not careful of them." 

"You three will be stationed spaced out where one of you can see the target and when I give you the signal you will take out the target. One of you will be locked on the target at all times when you are able to see him, one of you will be locked on Jongho at all times, and one of you will keep an eye on the rest of the building, making sure no one is in the same hallway as Jongho. If anyone Understand you three?" He said facing the men to my left. 

"Understood sir!" They say in unison.

"Jongho, you will enter the building from the roof, you need to be on the 53rd floor, there are 65 floors in this building, so you will travel 12 floors to get to the 53rd floor and an additional seven later on. You will be in charge of going into the building and copy all the info they have on us into this flash drive, then get rid of anything they have on us, if they have papers burn them, after you do that I'll give the signal for one of them take out the target. Once the target is dead you will go into the meeting room and take out the rest of the attendees, you will not have any guns this time. Understand?" He explains. 

I nod.

"Good, go change." 

I wait for the men to escort me to the changing rooms, I'm not aloud to go anywhere alone in the base. One man grabs my forearm and pulls me to the changing rooms with my gear. When I walk into the room, he shuts the door behind him and waits for me to get changed. 

I pull my sleep shirt and shorts off and set them on the table for right now. I walk over to the little stand that has my outfit on it. My gear was made for me, so if I shape shift my clothes shift with me, they don't show up on whatever animal I'm shifted as, but they stay on somehow, so when I shift back to human form they are still there. My goggles aren't as cool as everyone else's but I have enhanced senses, I don't need cool goggles. They do have a meter to the side of the glass for how much light is surrounding me and how dark it is around my general area, for when I need to use my shadows powers, so that's cool. My mask is the same as everyone else's though, nothing special. 

My gear is black turtle neck with a bulletproof vest underneath, black skinny jeans that are slightly stretchy, black tactical boots, black gloves, a small black analogue watch on my left wrist, a large knife strapped to the small of my back, two small knives strapped to my calves, and one knife strapped to my right hip. 

When I have everything in its place, besides my mask which in around my neck and my goggles which are around my forehead. I walk back to the man and hold out my wrist so he can take off my restriction bands. He grabs a key from his pocket and unlock my bracelets. He hands me my earpiece, and I put inside my ear. My earpiece also stays when I change forms. 

I walk with him to the front of the building, looking at my watch and seeing it's 12:30 right now. When we reach the front, there is a black van that the four of us climb into. 

"Jongho transform into a bird, so you can get to the roof faster." A man in a black suit says from the passenger seat. 

Following his command I decide to change into a hawk. 

I stand still in the seat, and wait for further instruction. When the vehicle stops one of the men holds his arm out for me to stand on. I step onto his forearm and he climbs out of the van. I stretch my wings and lean my head down ready to take off as soon as his feet touch the concrete, when they do I flap my wings hard and fast, while pushing off of his arm. I fly around for a few seconds until I see the other three in position, I swoop onto the roof when they get into position. I transform in my human form a little over eight feet above the roof, and roll when my body makes contact with the pebbles. I check my watch again, there's 20 minutes until the meeting, meaning I'm in my position on time. I pull my 

"Jongho go ahead and head in now since it one a.m., and make your way to the 53rd floor." Someone, I assume the man in the suit, says in my earpiece. 

I open the door leading to the inside of the building, and make my was down the many flights of stairs, seeing the numbers on the walls with their respective floor number makes my job a lot easier. I reach my floor in under five minutes. 

Looking at my watch on last time, it's 1:04, I open the door to the floor as quietly as I can. Hearing squeak slightly stops me from opening it further. I lean my head closer to the opening to hear for anything or anyone who might have heard the door, hearing nothing I continue to open it slowly. 

When the door is open just enough for me to get in I tiptoe into the dark space. 

I look to my left and right to see if anyone is there. Keeping my hand on the blade on my back, I start to walk to one of the rooms. 

Opening the door to one of the many rooms I see many filing cabinets. I open one and skim through the names on the little tabs. When I find nothing related to the gang on the tabs, I open all the folders and flip through them to double check (you can never be to cautious), seeing nothing I close that drawer and move onto the one below that. This continues for a while when I finally manage to find a drawer filled with tabs related to TFO, pulling the drawer out completely I dump the files onto the floor and continue to sift through the rest of the cabinets, throwing any I find that seem suspicious into the pipe as well. With there being no computers in the room, I throw all the files into a bin and pick it up and bring it with me to the next room. 

Finding nothing in the next few rooms but desks and conference tables, I open the last room and see what I've been looking for, computers. 

Setting the files down next to me, I walk over to one of the computers, using the login information I was given, I log in. I plug the flash drive into the computer tower, and begin to search for their info on us. 

After about six minutes having found everything they have, while deleting it after having it copied over, I shove the flash drive back in my pocket. 

"Sir, I'm done." I say to the suit guy. (Really anyone at this point.)

"Okay, it's been thirteen minutes since the meeting started, go ahead and take the shot Jinmo." His voice booms in my earpiece. 

"Sir, target down." Jinmo, I guess, says. 

"Jongho, head down to the 46th floor and take care of the rest. Don't take to long." Suit guy says.

I throw a match into the bin and make my way to the stairs. Practically running down the stairs, I make it to the 46th floor in no time. 

I crouch down around the corner from the meeting room, and lean over to see if anyone is in the hallway. I stand up and walk towards the meeting room seeing no one in the hall. I make the room go dark by forcing some of the shadows of the rest of the building into the room, blocking out the lights in the room. 

I walk towards the room with my head tilted down. 

Now in view of the people through the giant window as a wall, I pull the blade from my back and hold it tightly. I slow down slightly seeing as they haven't seen me yet. I pull one of the smaller knives from my calf, to get their attention, I throw the knife into a lady's throat. I pull my goggles down around my throat so they can see my sadistic glare. I pull my knife back towards me with my telekinesis, putting it back into the strap on my calf I smirk when they finally see me. 

I continue with my slow walk to the room, and when one of the other lady's starts to scream I start to walk a lot faster.

Now inside the room I hold my right hand out towards the screaming lady, and squeeze my hand slightly. Hearing the choking of the lady everyone turns towards her, seeing her throat has a faint hand print around it. I pull my fist closed crushing the bones in her neck, and she falls limp with no more noise. 

I turn to one of the men now standing up with his hands covering his gaping mouth. I move my arm towards him and move two to of my fingers to the table. His head is shoved by an unseen force into the corner of the round table, and crushes his skull. His body falls to the floor and blood pours out of his now open forehead. 

I walk towards two men cowering in the corner of the room, and use the blade in my left hand to stab one in the chest, right into his heart, then I pull it out and stab the guy next to him in the same place. 

I turn to the last three, who happen to be a corner crying as well. I put the blade in the strap on my lower back and walk towards them. I bring my hands up and pull them down again really fast, their heads following the action and snapping each of their necks. All three of them fall limp to the ground, I sigh quietly. 

"The rest are dead." I say. 

"Good work, meet us back at the base. We've already loaded up and are heading back as we speak." 

"Yes sir." I said quietly. I take my earpiece out, turn it off and put it in my pocket. I pull my mask down around my neck with my goggles. 

I look back over the room. 

I walk around and close all of their eyes. 

"I'm sorry, I truly am." I whisper as a tear falls down my cheek. 

"You never deserved this.. none of.. none of it." I whisper as a silent sob leave my mouth. 

I cover my mouth as more sobs leave my mouth, this time louder than the last. I lean against the wall behind me, and slowly my legs give out, leaving my knees against my chest. 

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I.." I sob harder into my hands. 

I wipe my cheeks with my sleeve and run at the window covering my face with my arms it smashes, and I'm falling down the side of the building. I transform into a bat and fly off to the base. 

Once again walking back into the gates of hell, this time with puffy red eyes that won’t be ignored.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jongho gets in trouble with his teacher, that group of boys knows something he really doesn’t want them to, and Jongho wishes he would’ve just left the stupid building before he got all emotional and started crying, maybe then he wouldn’t have to deal with all of this right now.

"Jongho wake up."

I immediately opened my eyes, panicking for a moment thinking I was at the base still. 

I look up and see the teacher glaring at me. I let out a silent sigh of relief. 

"Why are you going to show up for class when you are going to sleep and not pay attention Jongho?" He says disappointed. 

"I.." I couldn't say anything past the lump in my throat. 

"See me after class." He said and continues on with the lesson. 

Normally I never fall asleep, but last night I didn't sleep at all. 

The boss thought that my punishment for crying last night would be to leave me in a pitch black room, in nothing but my underwear, full of different bugs that would crawl on and around me, they know I'm terrified of bugs so they used it against me. I wasn't allowed to move a muscle or I would be shocked from the dog collar around my neck. After what I think was two hours they took me out and put me in the blue room for the rest of the night until it was time for school. Whenever I would start to fall asleep they would shock me as a reminder to stay awake. 

Again under any normal circumstance I wouldn't have fallen asleep in class, but I got no sleep last night.

When the bell rings I get up from my seat with my bag and go to the teachers desk. 

"Jongho, why were you sleeping in my class?" He asked sternly. 

"I.. I didn't get much sleep last night sir.." I said looking down at my feet. 

"I'm going to have to call you parents about this Jongho, you're a good kid but I have to give you the same treatment as everyone else." 

My face pales, and my eyes shoot wide open. 

"Please you don't need to, they're at work right now, and it won't happen again I promise you don't have to call them sir." I say panicked. 

"Jongho I'm going to call now, it'll be on speaker." She said ignoring me. She dials the number, and waits for it to pick up. 

"This is the Fairness Together Children's Home. How may we help you today?" A male voice comes over the speaker on the phone. 

"Hello, I'm calling about Jongho, I'm his teacher and I'd like to talk to you for a minute." He said not taking his eyes off of the phone. 

I put my hands behind my back to hide their violent shaking. 

"What do you need to talk about." He said and slightly growls, you'd never notice unless you've been around them long enough.

"Today during class Jongho has fallen asleep, I talked to him after class had ended and he claimed he hasn't gotten enough sleep. I just wanted to let you know so he can get more sleep." He said. 

It was silent for a minute. Then he finally responded.

"Okay I'll talk to him when he gets home. Thank you for your concern." The line ends, and the teacher lets me out for lunch. 

I walk up the stairs to the roof. 

"Yeah but I don't understand." A muffled voice says from behind the door to the roof. 

"Wooyoung you never understand a lot of things." Another voice says. 

"Well no one's perfect Yunho." The first voice says again. 

Why are people on the roof? What are they doing there?

"Anyway you two, back to the topic. We need to figure out who the shifter was that we saw jump out of the window." 

"I caught a glimpse of the face before he shifted into a bat, I snapped a photo too." 

"Am I crazy or does that look like the kid that never pays attention in our class Yeosang?"

Oh god.. 

"Yeah it kind does Mingi." 

"Let's keep an eye on him for now, and keep searching for the man in the picture if it turns out to not be him." 

They saw my face.. 

I walk down the stairs as quickly as I can to get away from there. 

"Did you hear that?" I heard someone say, it was really quiet, but I heard it. I start to run when I hear the door open, and footsteps start to come down the steps. 

"Hey!" Someone yells.

I sprint away from the stairs and turn a corner. Stopping to catch my breath I turn around, pull my phone out and walk back in the direction of the stairs. 

I look up slightly, and see a group of seven boys looking around. One looks at me, and just stares. I start to walk a little faster.

I almost trip when my phone starts to ring. 

Seeing the caller my hands start to shake again. 

"Hello..?" I say quietly. I still feel the eyes on me.

"You let someone see your face after you were finished with the assignment. Did you know that? After your little break down last night somehow after you left someone was able to get a photo of your face Jongho. Why did you have your mask off boy?!" He screamed.

I squeezed my eyes shut out of fear. I take in a shaky breath. 

"I.. I.." A lump was forming in my esophagus. 

"And your teacher called me to let me know that you were sleeping in class, what was that about? Are you forgetting how to behave now that I let you have a pet?!" 

"N-No.. no sir." My breathing started to quicken. 

"Come home. Now." He growls. 

"Sir.. school hasn't.." My voice is getting smaller and smaller by the second. 

"I don't care if it hasn't ended yet, I'll send an email giving an excuse later! I want you in this building in ten minutes Jongho!" He yells and hangs up. 

My eyes start to sting when the panic settles in finally. I sprint as fast as I can out of the building and towards the base. 

I can hear the footsteps behind me, but I don't care, right now all I care about is getting to the base in under ten minutes. Normally it takes me thirty minutes to get back to the base, but now I have to get there in less than ten. 

I'm fairly sure the only thing fueling my newfound speed is the blinding panic and terror. 

I trip somewhere along the line, but I catch myself and continue running.

If I fall I lose time. 

If I lose time I get a harsher punishment. 

I don't want a harsher punishment when the one I'm going to get is already near death. 

I can't afford to lose time. 

Finally seeing the building in sight I use the last of my energy to run faster. 

At this point I could probably give Usain Bolt a run for his money. Pun intended.

I knock on the door and it opens immediately. I'm thrown inside by my collar, and I hit the floor. 

"Get up. You fucked up big time, be thankful if you're breathing at the end of this."

I stand up with my head down, and my arms behind my back. I'm pulled to the bosses office by my elbows, and when we get there the boss is just standing in the middle of the room. 

"Leave him here." He says. " I'll deal with him personally." 

My knees are going to give out any second. I've never been given a punishment by the boss before, it's always been Katelyn and two random people. 

"You have been testing my patience Jongho. You are a lot more out of line lately, especially last night. Don't think I don't know about your little episode last night after the crew left you alone. I never taught you to feel sorry for anyone you've killed, boy." He grabs my face and pulls it up to look at him. 

"Look at me when I talk to you kid." 

"You need to be taught how to behave again." He grabs my neck, and pushes me against the wall cutting off my air flow.

"Please.." I choke as I grab his forearm. 

"You aren't getting off easy this time, you seem to have forgotten your place in this gang." He opens the door and throws me at the feet of one of the men outside of the room. 

I gasp as I can finally breathe again.

"Take him to the basement, I'll be down there in a minute. And get him changed out of his uniform, I don't what to have to clean blood out of the fabric." He says and walks back into his office. 

The man grabs my collar and pulls me to the changing rooms, not even waiting for me to stand up. I struggle to get up as he's walking but somehow I manage. 

When we got to the changing rooms he threw me a small pair of white shorts and a thin white tank top. I change into the clothes and walk back over to the man. He grabs my arm again and pulls me down the hallway.

He takes me down a few flights of stairs and into a large cement room. A room that has nothing inside of it. The room is almost completely dark except for the small amount of light coming from the stairs.

He shoves me in the room, turns to the stairs, and walks out while pulling the door shut behind him. 

Leaving me in the pitch black room, standing in an empty abyss. 

I wrap my arms around my torso and hug myself for the comfort I most definitely will need to keep my composure. 

The door creaks opens as light pours into the large concrete box. 

The boss walks through the door with the most terrifying gaze in his eyes. He stares at me with a pure unfiltered rage. 

He drops duffle bag hanging off of his left shoulder, and it makes a loud bang when it hits the floor. 

"You will be in here for a week Choi Jongho. You will not receive food while you are in this room, and will only receive two water bottles, use them wisely. You are not aloud to sleep unless you are given permission, if you are caught sleeping you will be shocked by this collar, that is the punishment for sleeping in class today." Pulling out the mentioned shock collar out of the duffle bag, he walks over to me and puts it around my neck.

"You are to stand at attention at all times when I am in this room, only when I have given you permission you don't have to stand at attention. When receiving a punishment you are to be still, under no circumstance are you to try to refuse a punishment. You will notice throughout the week, there will be changes made inside this room, those will be for your lessons in obedience." He said crouching to the bag and unzipping it. 

"You first lesson will start tomorrow, but today you will be punished for what happened after yesterday's mission." 

He pulled out a pair of brass knuckles with tiny spikes on them, and a large knife. Setting the knife aside and walking toward me, he puts the spiked brass knuckles on his fingers. He sets the knife off to the side for now, and walks in front of me. 

He pulls his arm back and twists his shoulders for a more powerful hit. He swings his fist forwards and hits me dead center in my chest, creating small puncture holes in the middle of my torso. 

They start to bleed slowly and I wince as the pain sets in. He glares at me and swings again, this time hitting me in my abdomen. 

The punches keep coming, and are seemingly endless, until he pulls the blood soaked metal pieces off of his fingers and puts them back in the duffle bag. 

He picks up the knife he set aside and walks to me. He puts the knife against my cheek and just barely any pressure sliced through my skin like butter.

"Sharp isn't it?" He asks. "How deep would it go if I put more pressure?" 

He pushes harder on the blade, and soon right cheek is gushing blood. 

He drags the sharp metal down to my jaw, the heavy sting it brings as the knife cuts my skin is almost enough to make my cry, but the only thing stoping me is my tears would get in the cut and it would hurt more. 

He pulls the tank top, now completely painted red, away from my body and cuts the piece of fabric off of me. It falls to the ground behind me, with a soft pat from being bathed in my blood. 

He pulls the knife away from my face and slices my stomach, and pretty deep too. He puts a few more smaller ones on my sides and a large cut one on my left breast. 

He then moves onto my arms once he deems my front side perfectly broken. Cutting my left bicep he grabs my neck and starts to choke me. While also marking my forearm and shoulder with large and small red lines, my vision starts to become spotty with little black blobs. 

When he moves to cut up my left arm he lets my through go, and I gasp and choke for air. 

The worst of the cuts has to be the once he gives me on my back. On those he puts the most pressure, and drags them much longer than the others littered on my body. 

After a few more minutes he puts the life away in the bag. 

He walks back over to me and punches me in the face. The punch causes me to fall backwards and on the floor. He stomps on my thighs, and my calves, then he kicks me in the stomach. 

He continues to kick me in various areas on my body. He pulls my hair and makes my stand up, when I'm fully standing up he goes back to punching me.

He backs away from me and picks up his duffle bag, turns and walks out of the room. Leaving me collapsed against the cold floor in agonizing pain.   
_________

The days started to bleed together after so many hours without sleep. 

I'm still in this room, shirtless, only wearing a pair of underwear.

At some point my shorts were to ripped, bloodied, and basically so unusable I took them off and put them next to the tank top I was wearing at the beginning of the week. 

The door opens again and I immediately jump up to stand at attention. My movements are very sluggish and slow, but I somehow am still able to stand on my feet. 

My legs ache, my backs in pain constantly from standing so much, my arms ache too, I have a constant headache, my stomach is in pain from hunger, breathing is painful, and I have lost a lot of weight too.

There is a large burn mark on my back and TFO burned on my lower back, because one of the punishments I got was getting branded, and then having boiling water poured onto my back while laying down. Those both still hurt. 

"Choi Jongho a week has passed, and your punishment is over. I assume you've learned your lesson boy?" The boss said in a warning tone. He walks over to me and takes off the shock collar. 

"Yes Sir. I have learned my lesson, you will not have any more problems from me sir. Thank you for giving me a chance to prove what I have learned from you in this past week, Sir." I respond void of emotions, weakly and barely standing up straight. 

"Good. You'll be escorted to the showers and then you will have your cuffs taken off so you can heal your injuries." He said pulling my neck and walking me to the door. He pushes me up the stairs, and when out of the basement I can see all of the teens training stop and stare at the marks, bruises, burns, and dried blood scattering my body. Even some of the older men look shocked at my state. Some even staring at the large TFO burned into the skin on my back with large scared eyes. 

"Take him to the showers, and take his cuffs off for the night." He says to a man standing to the side of the door.

The boss walks off and the man pulls me to the showers. When I get to the showers the man pulls some clothes down from a cabinet, and hands them to me with a towel. He takes my bands off and walks to the front of the room by the door. 

I take off my underwear and turn the water to cold. I step under the water and sigh at the relaxing feeling of the freezing water roll over the burns on my back. 

I grab the shampoo and wash my hair first, then wash the rest of my body as softly as I can while still cleaning myself. 

When I'm done I dry myself off, then I start to heal all of the recently done stuff. 

I heal the burns on my back so they don't hurt anymore, they will leave nasty scars though. I then heal my ribs, when I feel my breathing doesn't hurt anymore I move on to heal the rest of my body. I don't bother healing the cuts and bruises because they don't hurt anymore. 

Once I am done healing myself I put on the clothes I was given. It's just a simple pair of loose grey shorts, and a loose black tank top, and a pair of underwear. 

I towel my hair off one last time before walking to the door of the shower room. 

Neither of us says anything as he walks me to my room, and when I get to my room I flop on my bed and fall asleep instantly.   
_________

I wake up to someone slapping me on the back of my head. I look up to see a woman with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Get up kid, you have to go to school." She said and pulled me up by my hair. 

I stand up and follow her to the the showers, she hands me my uniform, and a brush saying something about it looking like it hadn't been brushed in a few weeks. 

Well she isn't wrong in a way.

I grab the clothes and brush and take my shower. 

After I've gotten dressed and brushed my hair, I walk over to her and hold my wrists out and she puts my hands on them. 

The world goes back to the dull state I've gotten used to.

I put a black disposable face mask on to hide the cut on my cheek, and the giant yellow and green bruise on the same cheek. 

I walk to school, still stopping by the corner store and buying my lunch, while also grabbing two cans of tuna for Sammy. I know she's okay, I felt her cuddle up to my side last night. 

I pay and then keep walking to school. 

Lunch rolls around fairly quick, and I walk up the stairs and make my way to the roof. I open the door and turn to walk to the small garden by the back corner of the roof. 

I pull out the small sandwich I bought from my backpack, and pull its wrapper off. I pull my mask down and start to eat it. 

I haven't noticed how shaky my hands are because of not eating for a week, until now that it's gone and my hands are completely still. Probably for the first time in a couple of days.

I'm always emotionally drained after a longer punishment, so it's understandable that I'm completely emptied of all and any emotions I could possibly feel at the moment. 

I let out a sigh as I take a few more bites of my sandwich.

I look at the small garden, seeing it's almost completely dead now, I chuckle sadly. I crouch down to touch one of the flowers, and the petals fall off once I touch it. 

I take the last bite of my sandwich. 

"You're a broken garden. You know?" I say to the small dying plants. 

"You were left uncared for, left to fend for yourself when the odds are in your enemies favor." I pull my hand away from the pitiful plants.

"Beaten down, the flowers you grew plucked out of the ground for someone else's pleasure." I pick up a dead flower that was on the concrete roof, outside of the gardens box. 

"They use you for their gain, to show you off to others against your will. When you start to become old and lose your once beautiful colors, they throw you out." I gently place the flower on the dirt, and push some dirt over it’s brown stem. 

"That's where you and I are different, they'll never get tired of me, not until my last dying breath." I softly caress the small flower bud poking out from the dirt. 

"You have hope to grow again, your garden will always grow once someone shows you the love and care you need to live again." I smile as I see more tiny green buds under all the dead flowers.

"You and I are the same, the only thing you have that I will never obtain, is a hope for a better future." I grab another dead flower from outside the garden and place it in the dirt. 

"Your flowers will grow again, they will be brighter than the last." I smile.

"My garden was never given the chance to grow beautiful flowers like yours does, the flowers I grew were always pulled before they could show their beauty." I sigh.

"You have the hope for a better season, while I simply have no hope." I stand up.

"Hoping for my garden to grow beautifully is useless, it's like I want to see the stars but it's the middle of the day and I'm locked inside of a room without windows, I can't get mad, getting mad doesn't help, all I can do is wait and hope for someone with the right key to unlock my door. I would hope that a person with the key came by the locked door and finally let me out, but after waiting for so long, I've given up on finding the key altogether." I look up to the sky. 

"I've accepted that I may never be able to get out of my locked room and wait for the sun to set, then finally, after such a long wait, I get to stand under the stars, and see them shining." I look back down to the small garden.

"I'll never see my stars shine, but you will, you'll see your flowers grow, and your stars will keep them happy." I chuckle softly. 

"Don't let people pluck your flowers from you garden, don't let people lock you in a room and never let you out, break the lock, grow to be invincible, grow all the beautiful flowers I can't, grow them since I am not able to." I back away from the garden, and walk back to my backpack. 

I swing my backpack over my shoulders, pull my mask over my nose, and walk down the stairs and head to my next class. 

I was never given the chance to prove I could grow beautiful flowers, they kept cutting my buds off before they grew. 

They never let me grow.

They never will.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jongho goes on a mission again, he get's a grouped with two other kids in class for a worksheet, he meets people on the roof, and something happens and Jongho doesn't even know.

"Jongho, would you please take your mask off?" My last period teacher says as soon as the bell rings. 

My head shoots up, and my eyes widen. None of my other teachers said anything about me wearing it, I can't take it off, they'll see the wounds. 

"I have a small cold and I don't want to get anyone else sick." I lied. My voice sounds empty, robotic almost, the complete opposite of my facial features currently. 

"Very well, you may keep it on." She says and starts to go over the lesson for the class. 

I let out a soft sigh and listened to her teaching.

I put my elbow on the desk and lean my cheek on it, pulling away quickly when pain shoots through my face. I let out a slow breath to stop from making noise, and switch arms to lean my head on the opposite one, then zoning out for the rest of the period.

The bell rings and I grab my bag and start to walk out of the room. I reach the hallway and make my way to the front of the school. 

On instinct my legs are moving by themselves, back to the place I've been conditioned to call home. 

I pull my phone out hearing it ping from an incoming phone call. I answer it immediately after seeing the caller ID. 

"Yes sir?" I say forcing my legs to stop walking, and I turn into a small alley next to me. 

"You are going on a mission now, meet your crew at the meeting point. The meeting point will be sent to your phone. When you get there you will be briefed and given your uniform. Am I correct in assuming there will be no more playing around?" The boss said menacingly. 

"Yes sir, I will not disappoint you this time sir." I said and he hung up. A few seconds later the address is sent to me. I open up the maps on my phone and put the address in. 

I walk out of the alleyway and start to walk in the direction the gps is telling me to. 

I turn into a large neighborhood, with a park by it. The park only has one family in it, but still I can't help but stare. 

The kid is running around with the biggest smile on her face, the mother, is sitting on a bench holding a small baby in her arms, and the father is chasing the little girl around the playground. 

A small memory plays through my mind, one I shouldn't be able to remember, a memory of a woman and a man playing with me laying on my back. Making weird noises with funny faces, and I was laughing. I couldn't have been over a year old, but somehow I remember that moment. 

I shake my head to get rid of the thoughts and continue walking, not realizing I had stopped walking. 

When I reach the house the gps has directed me to, I see a man dressed in black sitting on the porch. I slowly walk up to him and pull my mask off, knowing he's the one I'm supposed to be meeting. 

He nods at me and pulls me inside the house while taking my backpack from me. He sits me down on a couch with five other men dressed in black also in the room. Three men have their tactical outfits on, the ones from the last mission we went on. The other two have casual clothing on, I assume we are going undercover for something. 

"Now that you're here we can start to go over this mission." The guy who pulled me inside says. I assume he's the leader of this operation. 

He continues to explain that the two men with casual clothing are going to infiltrate a lab that has some valuable information that the gang has been trying to find, while the three men with tactical gear on are going to be my backup and keep an eye on things outside while I'm inside stealing the files and getting rid of any evidence of our entry. He then goes to explain the paths we are to take while inside the building, and that if anyone sees me, or anyone else is discovered we are to kill them without hesitation. 

After he explains everything he hands me my outfit and tells me to change. He sends one of the men with me to show me to an empty room, and to watch me. Not in a creepy way, just to make sure I'm doing what I should be. 

I start to take my school uniform off, leaving me in only my underwear. 

I grab the jeans and put them on, then pull my socks on. I grab the bulletproof vest and put it on, I slip the black turtleneck over it, then put my gloves on. I strap all the knives in their places, then put my boots on. 

I grab my mask and strap it on, then pull it down around my neck. I put the goggles on my forehead. 

I nod to the man and he walks me out to the rest of the crew. 

When we walk out of the room, everyone stands up and waits for instruction. The leader walks over to me and unlocks my bands, taking them off and putting them inside a duffle bag he is carrying.

"Let's get going." The leader says, gesturing for the garage. 

We all get in a van that was parked inside the garage. 

The leader gets in the driver seat and starts the van. For a while it's just silence, until the van stops and the two men in casual clothes get out and get inside a regular car and start to drive away. 

The leader continues to drive, until we stop. 

We all get out and I pull my mask over my mouth and nose, and pull my goggles over my eyes. 

I transform into a blue jay and quickly fly to some large trees. I transform back to a human to let the crew I'm in place. I stay crouched on the branch, and wait for the signal to go inside. 

"I'm in my position." I whisper. 

No one replies, but I know they heard me. 

After thirty minutes someone gives the signal. 

I jump out of the tree and land quietly on the grass below me. I look around hunched behind the tree to see if anyone is around. Seeing no one I run silently to the side of the building and hide behind a rock, I peak over to see a pair of men in suits leaving through the main doors talking. I ran to the side entrance they had left from, and entered the building. I look left and right to see if anyone saw me. I continue on my way to the stairs that are directly left of this exit door, according to the blueprints the leader showed us. 

I open the door and run up to the third floor. I open the door slightly listening for voices nearby, hearing nothing. I quietly walk out of the stairwell and turn right. 

Following the path I was told to, I reach a small room with some files and a computer, along with a few tables that have some chemicals and lab equipment. I open the files and sift through them searching for something that says 'EXPERIMENT-6381,' finding nothing related I go to the computer. I turn it on and see it requires a username and password. I put in the username 'woonhyeongpark' and the password '091583wnhyp.' The username is the name of one of the top scientists that work in this lab, and the password is his birthday and some letters from his name. 

The computer unlocks and I sift through all the files on his desktop, and find a few of the files are named 'EXP-6381.' 

I open them up and start to read through them, while they are copying to the flash drive I was given during briefing. 

None of it makes sense to me, except for the small description of what this chemical would be able to do when completed. It's a permanent chemical that, if injected safely and completely, will enhance a powered person's abilities, and possibly give new ones. This chemical can send the person into a state of blankness and will follow any command without hesitation, if the right words are said to trigger the chemical to shut parts of the brain off. 

None of this sounds safe, especially the large warning page at the end of the entire document. 

'Warning this chemical is currently unstable if given contact to human blood. Do not inject the chemical into a human bloodstream, it is not yet completed. If the chemical is injected at its current state in a human's blood it may cause death, paralysis, and many other complications.'

The list keeps going. 

The words send shivers down my back. 

I know exactly why they want this stuff. They want to create the perfect soldiers, the perfect pawns in their game of chess. 

If they manage to perfect it, I know they plan on using it on me. 

And that terrifies me to the core. 

I shake my head to get rid of my thoughts, they have finished copying so I close everything and take the drive out of the computer. I log out of the computer and then turn it off. 

I put everything back the way I found it, then walked out of the room. 

I stop in my tracks when I hear faint footsteps coming from around the corner. I turn to see no one in the hall currently, but I still hear the footsteps coming closer to turning the corner and seeing me. 

I move my right hand to use the shadows in the area to create a fog over the person's eyes so they are temporarily blinded. 

"What the-?!" I hear a male voice say as he turns the corner. 

While my right hand is keeping the shadows over his eyes, I use my left hand to put enough pressure on his throat so he passes out. As he falls, I walk back to the stairwell and make my way back down. 

I look around after I've left the stairwell, and walk back over to the exit I came into seeing no one is around. 

"I'm done." I say into my earpiece once I'm out of the building. 

I walked back over to the tree I was in before I entered the building, and sat down. 

"Okay, we have a minor issue over here, our cover was blown and we're being held until authorities come." Someone says, I assume one of the men who went undercover. 

"Jongho, take care of that. And bring the two of them out alive." The leader says.

"Yes sir. What floor are they on?" I say standing up. 

"I'm not sure, you will have to fly around and scope it out." He says. 

"Yes sir." I said transforming into a falcon and flying up. 

I circle the building a few times before I see the two men being escorted down a hall by some cops that have just arrived. I fly down and give into the window transforming back to my human form as the glass is shattering. 

I use my telekinesis to lift two of the guns from the cops hips. I flick my wrist and send them flying towards me, I catch them mid air as the cops are turning around. Before they have the chance to react I pull the triggers and shoot both of them in their heads. I run to the two and throw the guns to them as they start to run to the stairs. I grab the other guns on the dead cops hips and jump out of the window. I transform into a harpy eagle, so I can hold onto the guns with my feet, and fly around to the front of the building to see more cop cars than expected.

I fly down behind a car a little ways away from them, and transform back into my human form. I pick up the guns that are now on the pavement. 

I look around the car to see that the cops haven't seen me yet. I shoot some of the cops that have formed a group, and see three of the five standing fall. 

Hearing gunshots the rest of them turn to see what happened, then panicking when they see three dead police officers. I shoot at the rest of the police officers that have now hidden behind the cop cars. I manage to hit some of them before I run out of bullets. 

I lift a car behind two of the cops, and throw it on top of them crushing them. 

I turn to the last three, ones by himself behind a car, while the other two are hidden behind a car shooting at me. 

I run to one of the cops that have died already and take his gun, then I run to get behind a car. I shoot the two police officers who just popped their heads around the side of the car. I stand up and flip the last cop's guns out of his hand and his hip holster, and calmly walk to him. He panics and runs to get one of his guns, but I flick two fingers to the right and trip him. 

He looks at me with a scared face. 

Then at the gun just laying a few feet away from him. 

He scrambles to his feet and tries to reach for the gun again.

I lift my arm up and pull it back down quickly, he slams to the ground with a grunt. I lift my hand up and he lifts up from the ground, and he is now standing, his eyes wide with terror

I close my fist as tight as I can, and I watch as his neck spasms as the force breaks it. Then he finally falls as his body has finally caught up with reality. 

"Cops are taken care of." I say walking away from the scene. 

"Good now get back to the van." The leader says. 

I don't say anything and transform into a hawk and fly back to the van.  
_________

I sat down on my bed and pet Sammy, they didn't get rid of her, they made someone take care of her while I was in the basement. 

I woke up earlier than I expected. I woke up before someone came to wake me up to shower. 

After a few minutes I hear the door open and a man comes inside and sees me awake. He raises an eyebrow and just looks at me. 

"Come on, shower time." He says holding a towel and my uniform. 

I continue through the rest of my morning routine, I put my mask on when I'm done with everything, then I'm walking out of the base and to my school. 

I stop at the corner store, and buy my lunch and some canned tuna for Sammy. 

I pay for the food and put it in my backpack, then continue walking to the school. 

I walk in the school doors and make my way to my classroom. 

I sit in my seat and wait for the class to start. 

First period goes by without me realizing, then second period, and now it's third period. 

"Class we’re going to be doing partner work, but since there is an uneven number of students there will be one group of three." She says.

"But before you start asking, I've already made the pairs and the group. When I call you and your partner's name you will come and get two packets to work on." She says, then starts to list out names.

I'm not paying attention to the names, I'm only listening for my name. 

"Jongho, Mingi, and Yeosang, please come get your papers. You three will be partners." She says. 

I stand up and walk towards her desk to get my paper.

I look to my left to see two of the boys from the group that were talking about me. I look forward and ignore them. 

I follow them back to their desks, and sit in a chair nearby. I walk back over to my stuff and grab my pencil, then walk back over to the two boys. 

"I'm Yeosang, it's nice to meet you." One of them says. 

"And I'm Mingi." The taller one says.

"Jongho." I say looking through the packet. 

They both fall silent as I start to work on the packet alone, not expecting them to do anything. 

When I'm finished with it, I simply give it to the two of them, who are still not even halfway through it, and pull my phone out to distract me. When the bell rings for lunch, I look at them and see that they are both done with the packet and just quietly talking.

"Do you want me to take them to the teacher?" I say flatly. 

"Uh.. sure, if you want." The tall one, Mingi, I remember, says. 

I grab all three packets and take them to the teacher, them walking back to my desk. I grab my backpack and put all of the stuff I had pulled out inside, and sling it over my shoulders. I walk out and head towards the roof. 

When up there, I pull my sandwich out and set it down next to the small garden. I pull my mask down, and unwrap the sandwich. Taking a few bites, I pull my phone out and open the camera to inspect the bruising on my cheek. It's not too bad anymore, just a bunch of faded yellows and a patch of green. The cut is looking better too. It's a scab now, it's gonna take a long time to completely scar over, but I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about the bruise. 

If I have to take my mask off at any point, I can give a believable excuse for the cut. I can't give a believable excuse for a giant bruise on my face though. 

I take another bite of my sandwich. 

The door to the stairs opens, and instinctively my hand reaches to pull the mask over my face again. I turn to see the same group of seven boys chatting, like they don't realize I'm here. 

I contemplate whether I should make my presence known, or wait and see if they notice I'm here. I decide to just stay quiet. 

"Oh hey! You hang out on the roof too?" Mingi says. 

His voice pulls me out of my thoughts, and suddenly all seven pairs of eyes are on me. 

My breathing picks up at the attention, and I just nod at his question. 

"Hey, we never thanked you for letting us use your packet." Yeosang says walking over to me, Mingi following. 

"Oh yeah! Thank you by the way, I would've never finished it." Mingi says sitting down next to me. 

"No, you would've chosen not to finish it." Yeosang comments sitting down on my other side, to which Mingi just shrugs. 

Mingi sees my bag on the other side of him and hands it to me. I thank him quietly, and the rest of the boys just look at the two confused and slightly alarmed. 

"Oh yeah, this is Jongho! We just met him last class, the teacher made us three work on a packet together!" Mingi says while Yeosang nodded along.

They all said their greetings and introduced themselves. Then they went back to their conversation, while sitting down in a circle. 

After a while the bell rings, and I stand up quickly and walk to the stairs. I can feel the stares on my back, and it only makes me walk faster to my next class.  
_________

I walk up to the door of the base, and knock on it. I'm pulled inside, like every time, and I make my way to my room. 

I'm stopped by a man and he pulls me to a room with the boss. 

"You're going on a drug run in one hour." He says. 

"You will be meeting them at this alleyway, between this building and this apartment complex. All the info will be on your phone." He said holding his hand out, I grabbed my phone from my pocket and handed it to him. He then hands it to his assistant, who puts all the needed information into the notes and gps.

"You will have a handgun hidden under your shirt strapped to your waist, and a knife on your forearm under your sleeve. You will go in casual clothes, a dark hoodie, ripped skinny jeans, some converse, and a black mask. You will draw no attention to yourself whatsoever, and you will get the transaction over as quickly as possible. Your cuffs will come off for this run." He says putting said clothing down on the table. 

"Go get changed and be ready." He says. 

The same man pulls me to the changing rooms to get changed into my outfit. 

When I'm fully changed I put my phone in my front pocket, and walk to the man holding the backpack that's carrying the drugs. I swing the bag over my shoulder, walk to the front of the base and walk out of the building. I walk down the street following the gps, and going towards the meeting place. 

Reaching the alley, I look around and pull my mask further over my nose. I lean against the wall of the apartment complex and wait for the person I'm supposed to meet. 

I hear a quiet footsteps outside of the alley coming towards it. I turn my head to look through the corner of my eye, and see a buff man walk down the alley after a few seconds. 

He's carrying a backpack too, so I assume he is the person I'm meeting. 

"You got my stuff?" He demands. 

"You got my cash?" I demand back.

"Yeah, you got my stuff?" He asks more strictly this time. 

"Yeah I got it." I glare at his harsh tone. "Count the money." 

"Paranoid much?" He says, but goes to count it. 

He opens the backpack and counts it. When he's done and he has everything, I hand him my backpack as he hands me his. He opens the backpack slightly just to make sure he got everything. 

When I put my backpack on it pulls my hoodie down slightly and my tattoo is showing slightly.

"You have a tattoo kid?" He asks as he sees the black ink. I just nod.

"Can I see it, I have one too, but it's on my back so I can't show you mine." He says he's gesturing to his back with his thumb. 

"Sure." I say. 

I pull the backpack off and hold it in my hand, while my other hand is pulling the collar of my hoodie down just enough so he can see the tattoo. When my tattoo is on full view, I look up to see his reaction. 

"Wait- holy shit! You're.. oh god!" I smirk under my mask as he realizes who I am after seeing my tattoo. 

I pull my hoodie back up, and put the backpack over my shoulders again. 

"Dude! Do you know how infamous you are across Korea? People who have never met you are terrified of you. Is it true that you have multiple powers, rather than just one? That's what one of my partners says but I don't fully believe her." He rambles on.

I look at him and shrug, as I walk past him. 

He looks utterly shocked at my actions and just stands there as his head turns and watches me. 

When I am out of the alley, I stroll casually down the sidewalk and walk back to the base. 

I look down after seeing someone from a cafe across the street staring at me. From the corner of my eye it looks like Yunho from the group of boys, but I can’t be completely sure. 

I walk a little faster seeing him turn to someone then point at me while saying something. I pull the strings on my hood and tie it in a bow, if I have to run I don’t want my hood flying off. It is still cold outside, so I don’t look out of place. 

With the cuffs off I can hear the little bell from inside the cafe, signaling someone went inside or left. 

I continue my pace to not look suspicious, but when I hear a hushed conversation and my name thrown around, I bolt away as fast as I can while taking as many turns and alleyways to get them off my tracks. When I’m in an alley I hear the hard footsteps far enough away where I can grab and pull myself up on the roof using ledges, drain pipes, and balconies on the side of the building. I reach the roof and look over the side to see if they were near. 

I see them run in the alley and stop for a moment to catch their breath. They don’t run off down the alleyway, instead they start to have a conversation. I don’t stay to listen to what they have to talk about, because if I don’t get back to the base soon I will get a punishment. 

I walk to the other side of the building, and I look down to see if there is anything for me to get to the ground on. Seeing nothing helpful, I look around to see if anyone is in the alley, when it’s clear I start to take my hoodie, shirt, and jeans off. Only because I don’t want to lose my clothes when I change into an animal, the only thing that stays is underwear. I put everything in my backpack, even my shoes, socks, and mask. 

I throw it over the side and hear it make a loud plop. I shift to a blue jay, and fly down to the ground after watching to see if anyone will come out of nowhere. 

I land on the ground next to the bag and shift back to a human. Still in my crouching position, I look around and open my backpack and pull out my clothes and shoes. 

Once I was dressed again I quickly made my way out of the alley and down the street, continuing my way to the base. 

_________

(Not Jongho’s POV)

“Guys, look over there doesn’t that guy with the hoodie look like Jongho?” I say pointing over my shoulder towards the guy walking across the street. 

I recognized him when I saw his eyes while he was walking. 

They turn to where I’m pointing and look at him. 

“Yeah the shoulders have the same build, what do you say we do Seonghwa?” Wooyoung asks, turning to Seonghwa. 

“Let's see where he goes with that backpack, but not too close we don’t want him to hear us.” He says getting up. 

Everyone follows him, and we all walk out of the door.

“What do you think he’s doing?” San asks quietly. 

“No clue, but the only lead we have to all of the crimes happening right now is Jongho, we don’t even know if he is the shifter, but it’s a good chance.” As soon as Hongjoong says that Jongho starts to run. 

It just confuses us, there is no way he heard us, if he truly is a shifter that is. We run after him and try to keep an eye on him as he takes many different turns to shake us off of his trail. 

When we turn a corner he’s gone, and there isn’t any trace of where he went. 

“Damn, where’d he go?” I say, as I lean against my knees. 

“And how was he able to run that fast, on top of being able to hear that we were following him from so far back?” Yeosang says, just as tired as I am. 

“That is strange.” Seonghwa mumbles out of breath. 

After two or three minutes of catching our breaths, we all hear a loud noise. Going to investigate we all spread out throughout the alleyways. San and Wooyoung go in the alley going straight, Hongjoong Seonghwa and Yeosang go to the one to the left, and me and Mingi go to the one heading right. 

Mingi leads the way and heads down the alley. He stops me when he peaks around one of the corners. He pulls his phone out and starts filming. Not knowing why, I look at his screen and see Jongho’s backpack on the ground. 

After thirty seconds of nothing happening, we see a blue bird fly down and sit next to the backpack. The bird starts to get bigger and reshapes and morphs itself into weird shapes, until the bird is shaped as Jongho in only underwear. More like Jongho changed from a bird back to a human. 

Jongho looks around crouching, then pulls the backpack open and takes out the clothes he was wearing. He puts them on then puts the mask back on, but before he closes the backpack Mingi zoomed in on it and we see a lot of cash. He zips the bag closed, swings it back over his shoulders, then walks out of the alleyway. 

We both look at each other with pure disbelief written on our faces. Mingi stops the recording, but we both are just standing there, in shock. We probably were standing there too long, because we were forced out of our shock by Hongjoong clearing his throat. 

We turn to him and run to show him what we just recorded. We must’ve looked like lunatics to the other four, but oh well, we just caught amazing evidence. 

Mingi plays the recording, and we look at the screen with him. He gets to the part when the Jongho flies down in bird form and then changes to human form, when Hongjoong’s face lights up with surprise. When the video is finished, he looks at us with the same shock we had. 

“Oh shit.” He says. 

“I know right? Now it’s confirmed that Jongho is a shifter, and at the end of the video in his bag was a lot of money too.” I say. 

“We need to get to the base and go over this video further. We need to find out as much information as we can from this clip. Let go now.” Hongjoong says while waving us to head towards the base with him. 

Jongho, what is up with you?

And why did you have so many scars?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didnt know how i wanted to write this chapter the way i wanted without adding an obscene amount of time skips (im exaggerating but it felt like that when i was writing it lol) so im sorry that it might seem like a lot,, TT^TT i tried to make it flow like i wanted i kind got it but oh well, ii was stressing too much over this,,
> 
> also im soory it takes me so long to uplaod, i dont seem to have a responsible brain, idk how tf im supposed to put it, but i dont use the time i have to do things that are important (like school and writing the chapters for this book) instead of watching youtube videos for 18 hours a day after i wake up at noon from going to sleep at 6 in the morning,,
> 
> i have problems,,
> 
> anyway i hope you liked reading this chapter!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jongho breaks his power cuffs, he makes friends with an injured bird, Jongho gets mad at an old friends for not listening, he learns something interesting and terrifying if TFO finds out he was hiding it from them, Jongho is growing attatched to the seven boys, and he doesn't know how to react to that.

"Jongho you're leaving, you can head to the front when you clean your desk off." The teacher says. 

I stand up after putting my stuff in my bag, and swing the bag over my shoulder and walk to the door. I walk down the hall and to the front of the building. 

Reaching the front, I see the boss standing there talking to a school staff member. 

I freeze for a second, and continue walking to him. 

"Hello." I say to him and the other person. 

He looks at me. 

"I'll be going now, thank you." He says to the person walking out of the doors next to him. 

I hurry to catch up to him, and stand slightly behind him with my head down and holding my hands behind my back. 

"Sir?" I ask quietly once we are outside the school. 

"You're going on a mission in thirty minutes." He says. 

"What?" I asked, surprised. 

"Do you have any injuries right now that could prevent you from performing your best today?" He asks, ignoring my question.

"No sir." I say. 

"Good, your cuffs aren't coming off for this one, I know you might need your powers but you are going to prove to me you can go on a mission without them for once." He said as we reach the black van. 

"Get in." He opens the door, and waves me inside. "Your suit is in the back, you're changing on the way."

I hurry inside, and take a seat. I take my backpack off and set it on the floor. 

Someone hands me my suit, my boots, and my weapons. I nod as a thanks to them, and start to change. 

I sit on the seat when I'm done and wait for further directions. 

During the ride there one of the men starts to explain what we are doing, and where we are going. 

We are going to a warehouse in the middle of the woods, on an anonymous tip that a gang who started a gang war with us has been hiding out at. And after some investigating that tip was confirmed to be true, so in TFO nature we are going to kill them. 

The van stops and we all pile out of the vehicle. 

When we all are in our positions the boss gives the signal to go into the building. 

I start to open a door on the side of the building and sneak in.   
________

I run out of the building in a panic, the bullets from the last guy flying past me. 

My leg and arm are in pain from being stabbed by the same guy that's chasing me now. He knocked my gun from my hands when fighting, then took my knives and stabbed me, and now he's chasing me. 

I try to get my cuffs off, but they won't budge. I look back to see he is still following me, I turn and climb up a tree. 

I slam my wrist down on a branch and see the band spark slightly. I wince and keep slamming it on the tree, after a few more hard hits it snaps with a harsh shock to my wrist. I try to break the other cuff with telekinesis. My powers are really weak, but I still manage to break it just in time for the guy to catch up to me. 

I jump down from the branch and change to a fox and run away again. 

I stumble to a nearby tree and lean on it, now noticing the black spots in my vision I start to panic slightly.

I hear the footsteps off in the distance, there isn't any time to heal myself so I just have to wait. I bring some shadows to hide myself behind a tree, and see him running towards me. As he ran past I tripped him by flicking my wrist making him fall forwards. I yank my hand backwards and my gun flies out of his hands. I come out of my hiding spot, grab my gun, and run to him before he can get up. 

He turns his head and smirks when he sees me. 

He rolls away from me before I can grab him, and jumps to stand up. He throws a punch at me, and I block it with my arm. I go to punch his stomach but he blocks it. We continue this for a while, both landing punches, blocking them, and dodging them too. 

Getting fed up with this, I transform to a barn owl and fly around him. With him able to see me I start to choke him with my mind, my eyes glow yellow when I use telekinesis but I always have goggles on so no one can see them. I transform back to a human, with my hand up in a shape that somewhat resembles someone gripping the fat end of a soda bottle really hard. 

"So it's true then.. what-" He chokes. "What they.. say about you having multiple powers.. and being the most powerful member in TFO.. possibly all of Korea too.." He says choking. 

He struggles more, and falls on his knees gasping for air. 

I squeeze my hand to a fist breaking his neck, I don't want to hear him anymore. 

After healing myself I slowly walk back to the warehouse, I stop when I hear a voice. 

"Where is that boy!?" The boss says. 

"I don't know sir, I saw him running off in the woods." A man says.

"Are you saying he ran away?" He growls. 

"I think he might have sir." The same man says.

"When I find that boy, he's in for the worst punishment he's ever received. He can't use his powers he's got his cuffs on." He says sadistically. 

"Sir! Look what I found on the ground." Another man says running over. Holding my smashed cuffs. 

"That boy is dead when I find him." He mutters.

I run to him quickly, and start to try and explain what happened. 

"Sir, please understand! I was going to get killed if I didn't break them! I would never try and run away, I promise! Please believe me sir!" I said panicking. 

"You will still get a punishment for breaking your cuffs boy, and for not being able to take that other boy without using your powers." He said as he glared at me. 

"I won't be able to get you more cuffs for a while, so you might as well get used to this for a few months. We will take this time to do some tests and training sessions while you aren't restricted." He says pulling me to the van with the others following closely behind. 

"In three days you will be going to a laboratory to be injected with a serum my scientists have just finished, and you will be the first to test it out to see if it works." He closes the door to the van and motions the driver to start driving back to the base. 

"Yes sir." I say quietly.  
________

Two days have passed and I am going in for the test tomorrow morning. 

To say that I'm terrified is the biggest understatement of the year so far. If this is the drug that I stole the formula for, I know what could happen to me if they hadn't gotten it completely correct. 

If I'm being completely honest with myself, I would much rather they haven't completed it, just to get out of this life. 

I wince as I pull my hand up too quickly to pull myself up to stand, my thumb catching a sharp piece of the fence on the roof. I can heal it immediately seeing as I don't have my cuffs on, one of the only good things that came with me breaking them. 

The cons outweigh the pros one to one-million. 

I was in the blue room for nine hours in total the last two days. After I had gotten back from school I was put in the blue room and beaten four hours the first day, then I was put in for five hours the second day, both longer than I've ever been in the blue room, I believe. 

My left hand's fingertips start to glow purple, so I graze my pointer finger over the small cut made by the metal. I pull my hand away from the other and continue to pull myself to stand. 

Standing here and just looking, and hearing, and smelling, and feeling everything without dampeners is truly the most amazing feeling I've ever felt for a while. 

I'm calm for once. 

I hear a bird struggling to fly, so I open my eyes to see a hawk flapping lopsidedly toward the roof. It flies over the fence and lets itself fall to the ground with little to no grace. 

I slowly walk over to it, I notice it's not that old, considering it's still not full size yet. It's got scratch marks on its back and on its wings, most likely from a stray cat. 

"Hey there little one, will you let me heal you?" I ask softly. I hold my palm open and show my fingers that glow a dim purple. 

The bird squeaks, as if saying yes. I can understand it, but not as good as I can for most pets. 

I run my now fully glowing fingers over the birds back and wings, and check for any other wounds. 

"Do you feel better now?" I say petting the birds head. 

It squeaks again, saying yes. 

"You should rest before you go flying again, I did heal you but your muscles must still be exhausted from having to fly on that wing." I say as it climbs on my right forearm as gently as possible. 

"Do you want to know about me before I have to go back to class, little buddy?" I ask. 

The bird squeaks saying sure.

"When I was little, I was forced to join this.. group.. kind of. My parents were already in this group, and when I was born the leader wanted me in their group too, at first my parents said no, and tried to get away as fast as possible. But the thing with this group of people is that, no matter what, you will never get away, no matter how hard you try you won't be able to run from this group. 

"They wanted me because of my genes, I have a gene that gives me powers and when I was confirmed to have the activated gene the group wanted me for themselves. They wanted to use me for their personal gain. They didn't care what they had to do, they just wanted me for my powers.

"They took me and raised me to be their own little weapon. After they found out that I had more than one power they said that they would never let me out of their reach, because I was the most valuable and powerful thing in Korea. 

"I can heal things, I have telekinesis, I can manipulate the shadows, I can shapeshift into any animal I want, I have enhanced agility and senses. I'm their perfect little punching bag, because if they go too far on beatings they know that I can heal myself, so then they can continue their sadistic game. 

"I would run away, but like I said earlier, they would find me before I even got out the building. This school is basically the only normal thing I have in my life currently, if I can even say that." I chuckle sadly.

I look down, hearing how fucked my life really is out loud makes my eyes sting. 

"I've killed people, people who have children. People who had someone waiting for them at their home. I've killed innocent people because I was told to." I lean my head back, and squeeze my eyes shut. 

"I killed.. I killed two kids." I say, the tears rolling down my cheeks now. 

"They weren't doing anything wrong. They were both nine and I killed them. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he said no witnesses. I was going to leave them and let them go back to their homes, but he told me to kill them. And I did, because I had to follow orders." I sniff lightly. 

"I took the lives of two nine year old kids, who had their whole life ahead of them. Just because I'm afraid of getting punished for not following directions. I chose to be selfish, and save myself from getting hurt, and killed two children." More tears fall from my eyes. 

"I have to go in to be tested tomorrow morning in some labs on the outskirts of Seoul. If I'm right, they are trying to see if they can successfully give someone more powers. If they didn't finish the serum, then it could kill me." I say softly, moving on from the earlier conversation. 

"I kind of hope they didn't get it right..." I smile bitterly. 

"Then I can finally get away from everything, I can finally have some type of peace." I look down to the bird. 

I smile at it. 

"The bell is about to ring, so I have to leave soon. Sorry for the rant you had to listen to little guy." I stand up and walk over to my backpack. 

"You can go ahead and leave now." It just looks at me with concerned eyes, all I do is smile brokenly at the small feathered animal. 

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, one way or another. Go ahead." I motion for it to fly off, and it does. Giving me one last look of sadness before flying off to the city. 

I swing my bag over my shoulders and make my way down the stairs, after wiping my eyes of any remains of tears on my sleeves. 

I walk in my next class and sit in my seat.

For once I actually pay attention to what the teacher is teaching. I notice the stares I'm getting from three of the boys from that group, it's like they are studying me. 

For some reason I can't bring myself to care as much as I would on a normal day.

I pay them no mind, and the class goes by too fast for me. The rest of the day goes by too fast for me, and now I'm slowly walking out of the school building. 

I see Yeosang walking up to me, I just look at him questioningly. 

"Do you want to hang out with me and my friends?" He asks. 

I would really love to, I want to make some friends, but I can't, it would just end up with me getting hurt even more. 

"I'm sorry I can't, maybe some other time?" I say to be polite, but I really hope he doesn't ask again. I don't think I could handle saying no to him again. 

"Okay some other time then." He says smiling still, and turns the walk to his group of friends, who are staring at our interaction. 

I put my head down and start walking away when I hear my phone start ringing. 

I answer it without looking at the caller ID. 

"Hello?" I ask.

"Hello Jongho, how are you? Are you good? I hope so." The male voice says. 

I come to a stop abruptly and my eyes widen. 

"What do you want?" I ask. 

"I want you to meet me at our location now okay?" He says.

"What if I don't show?" I ask cautiously. 

"One of your little school friends won't be living any longer, I have my sniper on a building pointed at one of your boys." He says darkly. 

I look around in a panic looking for the sniper. I look at the group, and see they are all just talking to each other. Only one of them is looking at me, but my brain doesn't seem to register that at the moment, I just keep looking for the sniper. 

Soon I spot the sniper on a small building not too far away from the school. I don't take my eyes off of it. 

"I'll meet you, but I want you to tell him to back off, if he pulls the trigger on that gun you will regret it immensely." I say staring down the guy laying on the roof, barely visible. 

"You know, I put him far enough to where if you had your cuffs on you wouldn't be able to see him at all. Funny right? You must have your cuffs off right now." He chuckles.

"I swear to god if you let him pull the trigger I will never forgive you." I growl. 

"You would be able to stop the bullet, no?" He says. 

"Hyukmin, don't you dare." I say in a warning tone. Staring down the gunman still.

"You and the group of boys are the only ones who would see you use your powers if I made the call for him to shoot." He muses. 

"Hyukmin if he pulls that trigger, you will regret it. Do not call the shot." I warn.

"Oops." He says. 

"Hyukmin, you didn't." I say furiously. 

"I don't know, did I? Goodbye." He hangs up. 

In the distance I hear the gun shoot, and I can see the bullet traveling towards, I think his name was Seonghwa. 

I raise my hand quickly, and try to catch the bullet. I stop it just in time for the bullet to fall right next to his feet. But I wasn't fast enough because the bullet caused a small red circle to form on his neck, and his hand shoots to cover it immediately, with a small gasp of pain. 

I see him look down and see the bullet resting at his shoes. Everyone else looks shocked, slowly trying to figure out what just happened. 

My brain then decides to notice the boy that has been looking at me, Wooyoung I think, his mouth gaping at what he just saw. His mouth moves, I can hear him telling the rest of them that someone just tried to shoot Seonghwa, and that I had stopped the bullet without even touching it. Then they all turn to look at me, I'm not going to pay attention to them right now. 

I run past them dropping my backpack by their feet, and jump the fence with no struggle then sprint to the sniper. I may not be friends with them, but I do care about them. Maybe a little more than I should, oh well. 

I see the guy jump off the roof and start running away, so I run after him. 

I catch up to him after a minute or two of chasing him. 

I grab his neck and shove him in a nearby alleyway. 

I grab him before he can start fighting me, and hold him to the wall using my forearm holding his neck, and my other arm to hold his arms. 

"Where is Hyukmin?!" I ask. 

The man, who is clearly older than me, looks terrified, rightfully so, as he knows exactly who I am. 

"He's at the park! Please I was just given an order! I promise I didn't want to!" He says in a panic.

I glare at him. 

"Which park?" I growl. 

"He didn't tell me! He just said that you would know which one! I'm sorry!" He cries.

I let him go and nod my head for him to leave, and he runs off quickly. 

I call the number Hyukmin used to call me, and he answers surprisingly. 

"Hello! Say, did you save him in time?" He asked innocently. 

"Hyukmin, you did this to yourself." I say and hang up. 

I walk back to the school, I notice that they are still there with my bag. 

I walk up to them and say nothing as I grab my bag and walk back in the school building. I walk to the bathrooms and change out of my uniform and into a pair of black jeans, and a maroon hoodie. I walk out of the bathroom, I pull my phone out and call the boss. 

"Why aren't you home yet?" He growls. 

"I'm dealing with Hyukmin, I'll be back later." I hang up, and walk out of the building paying no mind to the still shocked group. I pull my hood over my head and put on a black face mask. 

I walk to the old park just down the street from the school. I see him swinging on the swings smoking a cigarette. 

"Hyukmin." I say. 

"Jongho, what a nice surprise to see you again after all this time. How long has it been, seven years? Time flies doesn't it?" He smirks. 

"You haven't changed at all still, have you Hyukmin? Still the bitchy stuck-up kid who never listened to anyone to save your life." I glare. 

"Yet I got away, and you are still their slave, aren't you?" He asks, flicking the cigarette to the ground. 

"You only got out because they didn't want to deal with you anymore." I say.

"Yeah, probably. But I still got out nonetheless." He says.

"Why did you never listen, you could've avoided all the punishments you got, but you never listened, why?" I ask.

"You still haven't gotten it have you Jongho?" He asks in disbelief. 

"Gotten what?" I roll my eyes. 

"You don't have to be their weapon for them to use whenever they like. You could leave and live a normal life, and not the way you live now." He says getting up from the swings and walking towards me slightly. 

"You still haven't gotten it either, apparently." I sigh.

"Explain." He said. 

"It doesn't matter if I want to live a normal life Hyukmin, I will never get that luxury. I have powers, I know, but since I have four powers, enhance senses and agility, they will never let me leave. I don't have a choice, Hyukmin. I never got a choice. You don't have powers, you may know how to fight and use a gun, but you will never understand that they will not let me leave, because I am more valuable than you ever will be to them. What have you not gotten about this?" I sigh again.

"You could just run away, not look back and start a new life in a different country." He says calmly. 

"I can't. I can't run away, they can track my every move Hyukmin. Remember when I was gone for three days and no one knew where I went and none of the higher ups would tell you anything? Remember that?" I ask. 

He nods. 

"They put a tracker in my spine. I can't just simply run away. I will never be able to leave, and yet you still don't understand." I glare at him.

"I can't get away from them no matter how hard I try, it will just end with a bigger punishment in the long run. You can't pretend to understand, I know you won't. You got away. You get what I can't, so in the end you still win. You beat me." I sigh. 

"I did, didn't I?" He smirks.

"Anyway, why are you so mad about me trying to shoot that kid? It's not like you've talked to them all that much." He asks.

"You shouldn't care about if they matter or not, you should know by now I don't like seeing innocent people die. If I'm the one pulling the trigger or not, I don't like seeing someone die, you know this." I say darkly, glaring into his soul.

"I do, but with who controls you, I don't think your empathy will survive very long in this cruel world." He shrugs. 

"You're still as dumb as always I see." I say.

"Bring it, no powers in this fight." He says. 

"I wasn't taught to play fair, you should know this." I say as I pull my fists up. 

"Neither was I." He smirks and pulls out two knives. 

"Let the games begin I guess." I say and lunge towards him. 

He jumps out of the way and dodges me. 

I try to strangle him by squeezing my fist by my side, but he cuts my concentration off by stabbing my side. 

I glare at him and punch him in the face taking him by surprise, causing him to lose his balance slightly. 

I take this chance to pin him to the ground, and grab his throat and push down as hard as I can. 

I elbow him hard in the ribs, and he knees me in the back and flips me off of him. 

I twist myself to roll into a crouched position as he stands up and lunges at me. 

He swings the knife and grazes my chest, I grab the blade before he can take it away from me, and yank it from his grasp. 

It cuts my hand but I don't care right now. 

I grip the knife hard and lunge at him, I duck as he swings the knife at me, and I stab him in the thigh. 

He doesn't react, and goes for a punch. 

I easily block it and punch him in the stomach, I pull his head down and knee him in the face. 

While he's distracted for a second, I pull him into a headlock. 

He stabs my thigh in hopes for me to loosen my hold. 

My arms don't loosen a bit. 

"I won again." I say, his arms falling to his sides and his body slumps in my hold. 

He drops to the ground, limp, and unconscious as soon as I let him go. 

I lean down and check his pulse. Feeling it still there I step back to focus on my injuries. 

The pain in my side, thigh, and chest all start to hurt a lot more now that I'm not focused on fighting. My fingers glow a bright purple, and I place my hands over my wounds healing them. 

I step back again.

"Until we meet again, hopefully in a less angry situation, but knowing you that won't happen." I say while walking away from his unconscious body. 

I pull my hood further over my head as I walk towards the base.   
________

My eyes shoot open as I look around breathing heavily. 

Where am I? Why am I in a giant cage? What am I doing here? 

"Jongho, calm down, you are in the lab you came to a few days ago. Remember that?" A man wearing a long white coat says. 

Oh the test. 

"Okay now that you're calmer, can you tell me if you feel anything different?" He asks, picking up a clipboard from the nearby table. 

"I don't.. feel anything different, should I feel different?" I ask cautiously.

"We aren't sure, we've never tested this before. Can you tell me what you are feeling though?" He looks at me questioningly. 

"I feel normal. My arms are sore, but other than that I feel fine." I say, not telling them I feel a slight warmth running through my body. 

"Okay, let us know if anything happened in the next few days, if nothing happened we can assume that it didn't work." He says, writing something down on the clipboard. 

"Yes sir." I say.   
________

It's the day after I got back to the base after the testing, and I'm on the roof of the school eating my tuna sandwich. I take the last bite, and start to mess around with the shadows. Moving them around and making different shapes with them.

Out of the corner of my eye I see my hand turning black. I gasp and look at my hand. I squint my eyes and try to figure out what's happening. 

My eyes widen, my hand is turning to a shadow. 

The serum improved my shadow powers. 

It did work! Oh god, it worked. 

I try to focus on myself, and see if anything else changed. 

My hands start to warm up slightly, I open my eyes and see a tiny little flame in my palm. 

I try to make the flame bigger, but it just stays the same. I sigh and close my fist. I focus and try to make the flame again, but on my finger instead. The little flame pops above my finger, and it's a little bigger than the other one. I shape it to a bunny, with a lot of focusing, and make it bounce around my hand. 

It feels just like controlling the shadows. 

I suddenly get an idea, and I make some shadows shape themselves to a big bunny, and try to make the little flame bunny bigger. It's still small, but now it looks like a mom and a baby rabbit hopping around the roof. I don't have to focus on the shadows, that's like second nature at this point, but I do have to focus hard on the fire and make sure it keeps its shape. 

I smile to myself slightly, and chuckle. 

I make them both disappear, hearing the bell ring.

I walk down the stairs, and walk down the hall to my next class. 

I walk in the door and sit in my seat. 

I have to keep the new power hidden from , at least I can just tell them I have been practicing getting stronger at using shadows if they notice that. I can’t just tell them, “yeah hey I always had this but never used it lol!” 

Yeah no.

I could practice conjuring the fire during lunch at school everyday, but that wouldn’t give me enough time to master using it before they give me new cuffs. 

There also comes the thought of telling them the serum worked, and that it gave me a new power, then I would be able to practice at the base. Even if I get new cuffs they’ll let me practice it. That comes with them knowing they got it right, and then they could hurt other people. 

Who knows if it worked because my body has already adapted to having multiple powers, and that the only way for it to work unscathed is because of me having more than one power. 

For others who have one power, or none, it could seriously hurt them since they don’t know what they are doing. 

No one knows what could happen if they test it on a person who has no powers at all. 

It could maybe even kill them. 

The bell brings me out of my thoughts, and makes me jump a little. 

I was thinking about that damn serum for an hour and a half. Wow time flies. 

I grab my bag, and make my way to the front of the school and start walking to the base. 

“Hey Jongho wait up!” I freeze hearing Mingi’s loud voice behind me. 

I turn slightly to see him running to me down the sidewalk. 

“What’s up?” He asks, smiling. 

“Just walking. Why?” I ask curiously. 

“My and my friends were going to hang out tomorrow since it’s Saturday, and I wanted to know if you wanted to tag along?” He asks hopefully. 

“I’m not sure, I’ll ask if I can.” I say.

“Okay cool, we’re all meeting at MinMin’s Cafe at two if you can. Meet you there Jongho.” He says turning to the other six boys, who are waiting for my answer I guess, considering they are staring at me.

“Maybe.” I say walking away slightly. 

I pull my phone out of my pocket once I’m out of ear shot. I dial the boss's number and wait for it to pick up.

“Why are you calling me, Jongho?” He asks. 

My hands start shaking slightly.

“Sir, am I supposed to be doing anything tomorrow?” I ask slowly. 

“You aren’t scheduled to do anything tomorrow, why do you need to know this?” He asks. 

“I was wondering if I could go to the store. I wanted to get some new hoodies for the runs I go on. The ones I have now are getting smaller and have holes in them.” I say silently waiting for him to get angry. 

“Okay, how many do you need, so I know how much money to give you?” He says. 

I was not expecting it to be that easy. 

“Uhm, maybe four, I’m not sure.” I say calming down slightly. 

“Okay I will give it to you tomorrow before you leave.” He says and hangs up.   
______

I walk out of the apartment building and walk towards the cafe Mingi said they would be meeting at. I’m wearing a pair of black ripped jeans and a navy blue hoodie, with a black mask on. 

I have had this hoodie for three years now, and it has a few holes in it. It has a small hole in the pocket, one small one on the left wrist, and one on the right shoulder. 

I definitely need new hoodies, my other one has more holes than this one. 

I pass by a few small shops with clothing and different stuff. I see some hoodies in there, that will be good for when I actually get new hoodies today. 

Suddenly the hood of my hoodie is pulled backwards and makes me fall in an alley. I push myself up quickly, and look at who pulled me. Three men are standing in the alley, one against the left wall further behind the two standing in front of me. 

“Why did you choose this one, it looks like he doesn’t own a penny to his name! Look at his jacket Myunghoon!” The shorter male says. 

“So we can still give him a good beating to make up for him not having anything for us.” The tallest says. 

The one leaning on the wall walks up to me and grabs me by the collar and throws me further in the alley, away from the eyes of the public. 

I don’t want to deal with this today. Today is supposed to be my day to feel normal for once. Why can I never get that?

I sigh as the three stalk towards me with wicked grins. 

I look above them and see a little thing I can grab and jump over them.

I run at them confusing them for a second. I jump up and grab on the little metal piece, then swing myself over them completely. I run out of the alley and slow down to a speed walk to the cafe once on the street. 

I look at the cafe and through the window, I see them all sitting in the cafe talking and laughing. 

I look to see if there are any cars coming and start to walk across the street. A hand grabs my shoulder and pulls me back to the sidewalk. 

“Who said that you could leave, boy?” The shortest man says gripping my shoulder tighter. 

“I did, I’m meeting with some friends if you’ll excuse me.” I say tugging my shoulder out of his hold harshly, and walking across the street. 

I put my hands in my pocket and kept walking across. 

Just as I’m about to open the cafe door, the same hand grips my arm and pulls me to face the three men again. 

“We weren’t done with you, you don’t get to walk away kid.” He says. 

“I’m clearly done, I said I am meeting with people, didn’t I?” I say slowly. 

“If you’re in a gang, you know about my rumors, don’t mess with me again.” I say prying his hand off of my arm and squeezing it, then turning to open the cafe doors. 

“You’re the kid with the raven tattoo?!” He says surprised.

I just look at him and walk in the cafe. I walk over to the seven boys, and sit in an empty seat next to, I think San. I just listen to the conversation after they all greet me.   
________

I wave to them as they all walk in the opposite way I’m going. I smile to myself slightly as I turn towards the clothing shop to get hoodies. 

I grab a black one, a navy blue one, a dark red one, and a light grey one. I pay then make my way to the base. 

I knock on the door and I am pulled inside. I walk to my room and set my new hoodies in the corner, then I sit down on my twin mattress and stare at the wall, just thinking about nothing and everything at the same time. 

For some reason my mind keeps drifting to the seven boys, who keep trying to pry themselves in my life. 

For once, I don’t want them to stop snooping around. 

In some way I really they aren’t looking to cause me some type of pain in any way. 

Maybe I’m hoping for too much, maybe I’m not.

Who knows.

I can still use the last little ounce of hope I have left. 

I might just hope for those boys to help me. 

Whether they just make me happy for the time being until they eventually leave me. 

Or if they somehow figure a way to take me away from TFO.

Either way, I will not complain. 

I really don’t want them to leave me.

I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of pain. 

I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that kind of pain. 

They’ve really grown on me in the small amount of time I spent with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am sorry for the really long wait,, 
> 
> i had to rewrite the second half of the chapter three different time because i didnt think it would play out very well the first time, and then i thought that it would be going to fast the second time and then the third time is similar to the current chapter with a lot of minor changes,, 
> 
> i didnt like how it was so i left it for a week and came back and finally got it how i wanted it to play out,, 
> 
> once again im so sorry for the long wait,,
> 
> BUT i hope you liked this chapter despite how long it took!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a new guy in the gang and Jongho doesn't know if he's ever been in a gang before, Jongho goes on a mission and meets some people he didn't think would be there, his teacher asks Jongho some questions that has him panicking slightly more than normal, and something unexpected happens after he saves a little boy.

Today is Wednesday now, I still haven't talked to those boys since we hung out last Saturday.

They haven't really approached me at all. 

I don't really know how that makes me feel. 

The bell rings and I grab my backpack and walk out of the class and to the front of the building. 

As I'm walking through the grass my phone vibrates. 

I pull it out of my pocket and unlock it, reading the message.

Messenger guy:   
Be here in fifteen minutes, you have an assignment. 

Me:   
Yes sir.

I put my phone back in my pocket and ran back to the base. 

Out of the corner of my eye I see Yeosang looking at me, ignoring him I keep running to the building.

I knock on the door and the door opens revealing, not the normal security guy, but someone new. The new guy doesn't pull me in, he just stands waiting for me to come in. 

Weird. 

I slowly walk through the door while eying him cautiously, and wait for someone to pull me off to somewhere. 

I feel a hand tug my arm and direct me to a briefing room. 

I am told to stand still, and wait for the leader to show up to give us the mission. 

After maybe two minutes a tall girl comes through the door, with the new guy trailing behind her. Everyone that was previously sitting down stands immediately, not looking her in the eyes waiting for her command. 

"Sit." She says sternly. 

Everyone sits back down waiting for the briefing. 

I stay standing though, because that's what I'm supposed to do or else I'll get a punishment. 

"This is Eden, our newest member, treat him like your own. Jongho, I suspect you know what to do?" I can see her eyes glare at me from my peripheral vision. 

"Yes ma'am." I turn to Eden and bow making a right angle with me and the floor. 

I do not speak or look at him without permission, I just bow at him with my head down. 

"Okay, now for today's fun." The leader says, I stay bowing because I was not told to stop. 

"You may stop bowing boy." She commands. 

"Yes ma'am, thank you." I reply standing back up, but not looking anyone in the eyes. 

"Today we will be stealing information from a very important building in this city." She pulls out the blueprints for one of the four buildings that train the few people with powers. 

What they actually do in those buildings no one really knows. 

"What info are we stealing, ma'am?" One of the men says behind me. 

"Boss has informed us that he got an anonymous tip saying they believed that the training centers have created a secret, quote unquote superhero, group to rid the city of crime. We don't know this to be true but the boss wants us to gather any and all info on this situation." She informs us. 

"This goes down in an hour so I want all of you to be ready, especially you boy, you mess this one up boss is liable to keep you in the basement again. You understand me? You even think about screwing up, he will not hesitate." She almost growls at me.

"Yes ma'am, I promise I will not mess up. I will follow my orders exactly, ma'am." I say mentally flinching at the mention of that week. 

"Good, now everyone learn your positions and suit up we will leave in twenty minutes. Jongho I want you in the van in ten minutes ready to go. Dismissed." She says waving everyone out of the room. 

A guard pulls me to the showers holding my outfit, and weapons. 

Eden tags along as well. 

My guess is that the boss what's him to hang around everywhere to get how the gang works. If this dude has never been in a gang, he's going to be shocked at how things work. 

Once in the showers I strip down and turn the water on. 

Out of the corner of my eye I see Eden gaping at me, most likely reacting to the scars all over my body. 

All the burn marks, the branding mark, the large scars from deep cuts, the marks from whips, the little circle scars from the brass knuckles with the spikes, the scars from being stabbed multiple times. 

No doubt this guy has never seen someone so beaten. 

He's definitely never been in a gang before.

After three minutes I turn the water off, take the towel from the rack and dry myself off.

I grab my gear from the guard and start to put them on, after I put on my underwear obviously. 

Once I'm fully dressed I am escorted to the garage and pushed into the van to wait for everyone else. 

Everyone piles into the van, and Eden sits to the left of the guy across from me. 

He's not wearing a suit so my guess is that he's not going in on this. He's probably going to be watching though. 

It's a fifty minute drive and we all get out of the van, I transform into a bat and fly up to the roof.   
_______

I transfer all the information I can find on the computers to the flash drive. 

When I can't find anything else I head back up to the roof. 

On the way there I hear quiet talking, almost like a whisper. I crouch behind a desk, and keep listening. 

I reach my hand to the knife on the small of my back and grip it tightly, not yet pulling the blade out of its sheath. 

As the voice gets slightly louder I recognize the voice as Hongjoong from the group of boys. My hand falters around my knife, I let go of it and see my hand is shaking. 

Why are they here?

I stop myself from overthinking more to get a hold of myself. 

I just have to not let them know I'm here, then I won't have to kill them. 

I pull the shadows to darken the area where I think they are, and sneak closer to the stairwell. 

"There is someone trying to get to the stairs Jay, what do we do?" Someone whispers. 

How did they see me?! They shouldn't be able to see me at all. 

"Deal with them." Hongjoong's voice says. 

"On it." Another voice says, I recognize it as Wooyoung. 

I hear his footsteps getting closer to me, I quickly run into the stairwell, and scale the stairs as fast as I can. 

I hear him behind me, and as soon as I reach the door to the roof I get trapped in a blue transparent bubble. Most likely someone who can create force fields. I turn to see a man in a black turtleneck and black jeans, with a blue mask over his eyes and mouth. 

"What are you trying to do here?" Wooyoung's voice comes from behind the mask. 

I force the field to break and create a hole by using my mind, and clearly he didn't think that would happen with how surprised he sounds. 

I run up the stairwell, and make my way to the roof. 

"Hey!" He yells, and runs up the stairs after me. 

I open the door and Wooyoung manages to catch up to me and grabs the back of my shirt and pulls me backwards. 

Out of instinct I grab the knife from the holster on my hip, and swipe at his thigh as I stumble on my back. 

I stand up quickly and adjust the dagger in my hand. 

He sends an energy blast towards me, I jump out of the way and roll to a crouch. Immediately after analyzing the situation I run at him and lift my hand up in an attempt to cut him, but before he can react I flick my wrist and he falls on his back. 

I kneel over him and put my right hand on his neck and squeeze slightly. 

I lean down to his ear and start to whisper something. 

"I need you to trust me, I am going to stab you but you will not die, please trust me, I need you to pretend to be dead for about six minutes. I need to let you bleed for a few seconds but I will heal you. Please trust me and do what I said, I don't want to kill you. Even if your team comes please keep acting, they can't know I didn't kill you I don't know what they would do to you, I don't want you to die." 

I stab his stomach and he groans loudly, then I stab his chest between where I know his ribs are. I know I stabbed his lung, but I can heal it. I stay there and wait for a few seconds, and he starts to cough up blood and his clothes are bloody enough to not look suspicious. 

I place my hands on the stab wounds and start to heal them. 

Wooyoung doesn't move, and I internally plead him to stay that way. 

Once he is fully healed, I lean down pretending to check his pulse on his neck. 

"Please wait six minutes Wooyoung, I'm sorry, I don't want them to hurt you, and I don't want them to know I haven't killed you. Please stay still. I'm sorry." I whispered. 

I run to the edge of the roof and jump off, as I'm falling I turn to a hawk and fly to the van. 

I internally panic hoping he doesn't notice I used his name.   
_______

Boss decided that he wanted me to train more and be in the blue room while I trained. He hired a new trainer to teach me to use my powers more effectively in fights and when I'm on missions or something. Said something about how he doesn't like how I'm relying mainly on my combat skills and weapons. 

Apparently the boss had told my school I would be gone on a family trip for a few days, and that I wouldn't be attending school for that time. 

Today I'm going back to school though. 

When I came out of the blue room everyone was shocked or how my body looked. My body looks ten times more beaten and abused than the last time I was in there. We would train for a few hours and then he would beat me to use up my energy. He said he wanted me to be able to use my powers even when I was physically exhausted. He would put a blindfold on me and tell me to fight using my senses to find where he was. 

That just made me more paranoid than I already had. I did learn to fight only using my senses though. 

The bruises and cuts haven't completely healed yet, and because I haven't eaten anything for a little over four days, so I can't heal them completely. I could stop them from bleeding when I had first got them, but other than that I could do nothing else. 

There is a giant burn mark on my back, arms and hips from a large pot of boiling water being poured on me while I was on my hands and knees. He wanted me to push through the pain and fight him. He kept saying that even if I was about to die, or was in agonizing pain, to never run and keep fighting. 

He wouldn't let me heal them either because he wanted me to stay in pain, so I could learn to ignore it and keep using my powers. 

I walk in my first class of the day, and the teacher welcomes me back to school. 

"How was your trip?" She asks with a smile. 

Fear courses through me for a second, just before I calm myself and answer her with a small 'fine' and a 'thank you', and walk to my seat, just looking at my hands. 

Lunch rolls around quiet quickly honestly, and the only thing I have is a small sandwich. 

I take a bite of it, and chew it. 

I take my uniform jacket off, and I look at the burns on my arms, wincing when I graze my fingers across it. I'm not allowed to heal the burns even when I'm out of the blue room. I continue to take more bites of my sandwich, and just think about nothing and everything at the same time. 

I close my eyes slightly, realizing I'm exhausted. 

I take the last bite of my sandwich, leaning my head on my palm.

I sigh, and relax finally not having any underlying panic over everyone else moving slightly and forcing myself to keep from flinching. Peacefulness has been a foreign thing to me for a while, and panic has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember.

Being able to relax is a blessing to me. 

The bell rings again so I put my jacket back on and head to my next class. 

The panic sets in again when I am around other people again. 

The last few classes go by fairly quick, and I am walking out of the front doors to the school when I see a car with a familiar man standing next to it. 

My heart beats faster, and I see Wooyoung walking towards my direction while looking at me. 

Terror floods through me, and I'm walking faster to the car internally begging Wooyoung to stop walking over here. 

As if hearing my internal pleads, Yeosang walks up next to him, and directs him to the rest of the group while talking to him about something. 

The rest of the group looks at him like he just ruined something, and he just keeps walking. 

I walk faster to the car, making sure to keep my head tilted down. I can feel eyes on the back of my head, probably from the other boys. 

"I'm escorting you today. Boss' orders." He says simply. 

I just nod. 

"Get in, you have to get fitted for your new cuffs in half an hour. Boss had the makers speed up the process, he doesn't want you walking around without your cuffs any longer. You will get them shortly after the fitting. " He grumbles. 

"Yes sir, I understand." I nod and get in the backseat of the car. 

He starts the car when he sits down in the driver seat, and drivers to the base. We pass some buildings but I am just waiting for when we get back, so I'm not really paying attention to the outside of the car. 

We stop and he pulls me out of the car and in the front doors to the base. He shoves me towards another guard and walks back out, most likely to go park the car. 

The boss' assistant pulls me from the guard and leads me down the hall to a room used for the base's science stuff when we don't need a large lab. 

I walk in the room with the boss' assistant and see a man in a black coat, holding a few pairs of cuff sizers. 

He grabs my wrist and starts to put some of them on me. Spinning it around my wrist, and pushing it as far as it will go up my arm. 

He goes down a few sizes and continues messing with my arm. 

He keeps going until he finds the right size for my wrist.

Once finished I am escorted to a practice room with three other kids my age in the ring. 

The fighting ring is a giant cage-like thing. It's made out of a special material where once you are in the ring any type of powers you have won't reach outside the walls of it. You can't leave the ring unless you have won the match. 

It depends on what the combat teacher says will win the match, if it is just to knock the other unconscious or to kill the other.

These kids don't look that much younger than me, if anything they may be my age. 

I look at them with sympathy.

"Jongho, you will choose the weapon this time. On the table is a dagger, a few throwing knives, and a pistol. Choose a weapon or you can use powers for this." He says motioning to a table with the items. 

"No survivors today." He says as he leaves the ring. 

I turn to the table, then to the others, then back to the table. 

I leave everything on the table and decide to use my powers for this one.

It would let the boss know that the training wasn't wasted, and hopefully let me rest for maybe a day or two.   
_______

"Class we are going to combine our class with the other science class, and all of us are going to go to the garden on campus and today will just be a chill day to hang out with others." She says. 

We all walk in the hallway and meet the other class in the garden. 

"Jongho can I talk to you for a second?" She says waving me over where she is standing. 

"Yes?" I say cautiously. 

"I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer me with one hundred percent honesty. Can you do that?" She asks with a look in her eyes I can't place. 

I nod. 

"A student came to me earlier today, she told me when you bent over to get something from your bag you uniform rode up slightly. She told me that.. you had a lot of bruises on your back." She says looking me in the eye. 

My heart rate rises now realizing where this is going. Someone should have never known about those, let alone see them. 

I unconsciously pull down the sleeves of my uniform. 

"Jongho I need you to answer me honestly okay, are you safe inside your home?" She asks slowly, judging my reactions and body language. 

"Yes Ma'am." I say trying not to give any indication I'm lying. 

"You would tell me if you were being hurt, right?" She looks at me with sad eyes. 

No I wouldn't, even if I wanted to. 

"Yes." I see her eyes flash with disappoint, and concern. 

"Okay, you can go now." She says.

I walk over to a little bench away from everyone, and sit down on it and set my backpack down in front of my legs. 

A quiet thump has me looking to my right, seeing a baby blue bird laying on the ground. It must have fallen from the tree that was behind the bench. 

I look up and see if I can see a nest somewhere above me. Not seeing one I look back down to the small animal and I see it panicking slightly. 

I get off of the bench and crouch down slightly away from the bird. 

"Hey little guy." I say quietly, reaching my hand out slightly to try and get it to trust me. 

It backs up slightly, and keeps looking at me. 

Then it squeaks at me in a warning tone.

"It's okay, I just want to put you back up in the tree." I say moving my hand closer. 

It looks at my hand and then at my eyes, and climbs in my palm. 

I smile at the baby bird. 

I stand up and look up at the tree and look to see if there is a safe branch to put the bird on. 

I see a slightly large branch with a little more covering than most of the other ones. I step up on the bench and reach to put the bird on the tree branch. The baby bird walks off my hand and hides in the leaves and twigs of the smaller branches. 

I step off of the bench, then sit back down on the bench.

I open my phone and consider searching about how to disable a tracker without touching it. All I can find about it is phone trackers and how to disable those types. 

I sigh and delete all of my searches, and close the app. I don't want them to go through my phone and see those searches. 

I get a text and I start to read it. 

Messenger guy:  
Drug run after your classes end, in the front pocket are your new cuffs also. When you get them put them on immediately. 

Then another text comes through saying where the backpack is and where the meeting place is. 

The bell rings shortly after I receive the texts, so I go ahead and go to the bathrooms and change into my hoodie and black jeans. I walk to the front of the campus and start walking to the place I'm picking up the bag.

I pass the group of boys, they look at me but I don't look at them. I can tell they notice I'm not going the way I normally go. 

I pull my mask out of my pocket and put it over my mouth and nose. I pull the hood of my jacket over my head as well.

When I reach the little park the backpack is, I can hear a twig break and look around quickly to see what it was. I see a little kid, no older than six maybe, running to the slide with a big smile. 

I calm down a little, but all I can do is stare at the boy. 

Have I ever had a smile that big before? 

My heart squeezes and I turn to look for the bag, I see it under a bench next to a small tree. 

I go to grab it and remember the cuffs. 

I open the front pocket and see the silver bands made of metal. 

I pull my sleeves up exposing both of my forearms. 

One of them has two big scars that needed stitches because they were too deep for me to heal on my own so they had stitched it. The burns are still there and they still sting. 

I wince when the bands snap around my wrists, forgetting how they feel on me. 

"Ack!" I flinch at the shock it sends through my arms signaling they have turned on. 

The world slowly turns more quiet and dull as the cuffs begin working. 

I can't feel the shadows anymore, I don't feel the warm feeling from my new fire powers, I don't understand the birds chirping anymore.

Once they are on I can't take them off anymore without having the keys. 

I hate the feeling of not being able to use my powers anymore. 

I pull my sleeves down, grab the bag, and start to walk towards the meeting place. 

I was supposed to be meeting someone behind a 7-Eleven, but before I can even leave the park completely I hear the boy let out a muffled terrified noise. 

I turn and see a tall man in black holding the small boy with a rag pushed up against his mouth. I run up to him as fast as I can and before he reacts I turn my body and elbow him in the rib cage and punch his shoulder. He drops the boy and I grab him and run away from him quickly.

I ignore the screaming pain from my burns when the boy puts his weight on them. 

Holding onto the boy as tight as I can without hurting him, I run down the street and slowly come to a stop when I know he isn't following anymore. 

"Hey buddy, you're safe now okay?" I say pulling my mask down under my chin. 

He doesn't say anything and just sobs and hugs my neck harder. 

"Can you tell me where you live so I can get you back to your parents?" He pulls away from my neck, and nods at me. 

"It's down the street mister. I-I wasn't supposed to be outside, mom said maybe later but I wanted to play on the slide." He says with tears still falling down his cheeks. 

"Okay, but next time please listen to them when they tell you no, please?" I said desperately, starting to walk down the sidewalk. 

"I'll never leave without my mommy or my daddy ever again, I promise mister. Hey what's your name mine is Min Jaehyun." He says, finally smiling again. 

"I'm Choi Jongho, nice to meet you Min Jaehyun, which house is yours?" I smile at him. 

"It's that big blue one right there! My room is upstairs and I have an iron man bed!" He says pointing to the light blue two story house slightly further down the street. 

"Really, It must be so comfy to sleep in. I wish I had a bed like that Jaehyun-ie." I say to him. 

"What's your bed like?" He asks. 

I freeze for a second, wondering if I should lie to him. I decide against it. 

"My bed isn't very big, it's probably smaller than yours really." I chuckle sadly.

"You should buy a new one then! Mommy says that if you don't have a comfy bed it'll hurt your back uncle Jongho." He scolds me. 

"I'll try my best to buy one sometime." I smile at him. 

I walk up his porch and knock on the door. It opens to a frantic woman in her late twenties I'd say, her face lights up at seeing Jaehyun. 

"Mommy I'm sorry for sneaking out, I'll never do it again. Uncle Jongho saved me from this creepy man when he tried to take me!" He says quickly the tears coming out again as he remembers how scared he must've been. 

"I have a feeling he won't sneak out again for a while ma'am." I say handing the boy into the woman's arms. 

She grips him tightly and starts to cry into his hair. 

At this point I feel like I'm intruding and start to walk down the porch, but she calls out to me before I get anywhere far. 

"Please wait! What can I give you to thank you for how you helped?" She asks. 

"I don't want anything, I just did what anyone would've done." I smile. 

"No honey, you only true hero's would've done something like that, let me give you something, stay here." She sets the boy down, and he runs off into the house after saying goodbye to me, then walks to go get something. 

She comes back out holding a necklace with a pendant on it. The pendant was a piece of jade wrapped with silver jewelry wire connected to the chain. 

"My grandmother gave this to me for my twelfth birthday before she was diagnosed with lung cancer, she died a year later. No one knew how but she always had a way of knowing something would happen before it happened, we were pretty sure she could tell the future. 

"When she gave me the necklace, she told me that something was going to happen that would change my life and bring me grief. She said that a boy who only knew pain and suffering would change a loved one's life, and save them from living a life of pain as well. She told me to give this necklace to them as a charm to change their future as they did for my loved one. 

"I'm giving this necklace to you because when you refused to accept a gift as a form of thank you, I felt my grandmother standing here. I could feel her telling me that you were the boy she told me about. She knew you would save my child." She said tears flowed down her cheeks now. 

"So please, take this gift, let it free you from whatever pain you suffer from." She smiled, pulled my hand from my side, and put the jade necklace in my palm then closed it. 

I nodded not trusting my voice to cooperate properly at the moment. I felt as if I was going to burst out in tears any second.

I bowed as a thank you and walked away smiling at her as she shut her door waving at me. 

My smile falls immediately as I stare at the necklace in my palm. 

Her grandmother knew what was going to happen. 

She knew about my pain. 

She knew about me. 

She said it would free me from my suffering. 

A tear falls down my face as I think about what would've happened to Jaehyun if I wasn't there. 

Would he end up like me?

Would he be forced to live in fear and pain too?

What if I didn't hear his noises?

Why did her grandmother know what would happen to the boy? 

Why did she know how much pain I've lived through?

Why did she care? 

Why would anyone care?

I shove those thoughts away as I put the necklace in my pocket. I wipe the few tears off my cheeks and I walk to the 7-Eleven. 

I pull my mask back up, and my hood further over my head staring at the ground as I'm walking. 

Still clutching the jade pendant in my pocket as I turn the corner to go to the back of the store. 

I see a man standing there with a backpack of his own. 

"Are you who I'm supposed to be meeting?" He asks menacingly.

"You got all the money we asked for?" I ask back.

"Yeah, you got all the stuff?" He glares.

"Yes." I say swinging the backpack off of my shoulders.

"Count it." I command. 

"Sure." He pulls the bag open and starts to count all the bills. 

We trade off backpacks when he finishes counting and we both walk in our separate directions when he is done making sure he was given all the drugs he asked for. 

I walk back to the base after getting my school backpack from the park bench. 

When I make it to the front door I am greeted with a familiar pull on my hoodie and yanked inside the building. 

One of the higher ups walks up to me with Eden by his side. 

"Wrists." He commands, and I pull my hoodie sleeves up to show the cuffs on my wrists. 

He nods and pulls me off to my room after taking the backpack with the money in it. 

I walk over to my bed and see Sammy laying on it sleeping. She is a bit bigger than when I first got her, she stirs awake when I sit on the bed next to her. 

She meows when she sees me, I smile sadly at her. 

"I can't understand you, I have my new cuffs on Sammy. I'm sorry." She looks at me with a look of sadness on her face. 

She curls up by my side as I start to do all my homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for how late this update has been, ive been going thru a lot of stress right now and i havent really gotten around to finishing this chapter earlier but i finally got around to it, so here it is. 
> 
> i hope you like it, i know it is a bit all over the place and i feel like im going to fast in the story line but idk. i might go back a rewrite the chapters later in if i decide thats what i need to do to get the story told better. 
> 
> anyways i appreciate any comments or criticism you have on the chapters or how i write, thanks for reading


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